On December 1, 2020, the Beacon Chain was introduced on the Ethereum (ETH) network. Partly because of this, it became possible to stake ETH and become a validator in order to reap rewards. To become a validator is a minimum requirement of 32 ETH, which at the current ethereum price is worth more than $53,000.
By staking you support the security and operations of a particular blockchain. As a validator you help with the validation of new blocks on the blockchain. For this you have to set a certain amount, so there is more certainty that a validator performs his / her work properly. slashing is the way to penalize a validator if they don’t follow the rules. The validator is often removed from the network and part of the stake is lost.
0.04% Ethereum validators slashed
According to a major Ethereum developer under the name ‘Superphiz’, there are only 226 validators in total slashed since the advent of the Beacon Chain. At the moment there are a total of 525,000 validators, which means that only 0.04% have been penalized during the strike process. He indicates that people should not worry about slashing when thinking about staking.
226 out of 523,000 validators on the beacon chain have been slashed. This is nothing to lose sleep over. Many slashings have occurred during failed system migration. Here are four emerging best practice tips to avoid this:https://t.co/wleR4YQmDD
— superphiz.eth 🦇🔊🐼 (@superphiz) February 22, 2023
He also indicated that many slashings occurred due to a failed system migration. To give people a helping hand, the developer shared four ways to prevent a slashing from happening. With these ways you will lose a few cents in staking income, but avoid getting slashed. This will make you lose 1 ETH, which amounts to $1,665 at the time of writing.
Superphiz further noted that more than 150 of the 226 slashings related to service providers. This therefore concerns parties such as Coinbase, Binance and Kraken that take the reins for their customers.
Effect the Merge on slashing
Since the traditional Ethereum blockchain was merged with the Beacon Chain, also known as “the Merge,” only 35 out of a total of 226 slashings have occurred according to data from beaconcha.in. This suggests that the Merge has not had a major impact on validator slashing.