The highly anticipated release of Ethereum 2.0 is nearing and the cryptocurrency world is gearing up to Stake ETH. Staking as a service is gaining popularity as users become more familiar with proof of stake protocols. As people realize they can passively accrue income through staking, the big actors in the blockchain space are stepping up to get a piece of the action.
ConsenSys is one of the companies that is out in front of the staking as a service industry. Their aim is to handle customer’s funds in order to maximize returns and make the process as fail-safe as possible.Â
Tim Lowe, the leader of ConsenSys’ Codefi staking program knows the cryptocurrency community is eagerly awaiting the arrival of Eth 2.0 and the staking feature.
“I think anybody who is holding any crypto assets and is aware of Ethereum generally is starting to look at Eth 2.0 and staking. It’s still early but the interest is there across the board.”
Lowe also acknowledged that it’s more than just individual crypto holders that want to be involved in the staking process.
“We have also been talking to some of the newer banks, the kind of challenger banks in the space, and they are definitely interested.”Â
Binance is one of the world leaders of the cryptocurrency space and they have already been heavily invoked in staking with several blockchains including Tron and EOS.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, commonly referred to as CZ spoke about how easy it is to use Binance to stake your digital assets.
“With staking on Binance, users can receive staking rewards without needing to set up nodes, or worrying about minimum staking amounts, time lengths or any catches. Users deserve the rewards that their coins can earn them. With the eventual launch of Ethereum 2.0, we are excited to support staking for all of our ETH holders on Binance.”
As we prepare for the arrival of “big staking,” CEOs are still aware of the negative impact they could possibly have on the overall blockchain field.Â
Mirko Schmiedl, founder and CEO of Staking Rewards explained the possible perks and pitfalls of staking with exchanges.
“An exchange can allow trading of staked assets and effectively remove the impact of lock-up periods for their users through efficient liquidity management, Exchanges can also allow usage of staked assets as collateral for other applications as long as they happen within the confines of the exchanges. This could include things like margin trading, lending, and supplying collateral for derivative trading. An exchange can also offer insurance for slashing events with relative ease.”
He went on to address the potential breakdowns in decentralization.
“Even if the entity is regulated and instituted schemes that enable greater decentralization, for example, by enabling customers to choose validators they are staking with, the entity ultimately is in control and theoretically able to change rules or to abuse its power,” said Schmiedl.
Decentralization is an important factor that crypto investors consider. These companies will have to toe a fine line of offering useful services without impacting users’ autonomy or level of trust. But it seems that the community of POS token holders is clearly interested in these all-inclusive staking services.Â
