Ethereum proposal would speed exits but keep entry cap

Ethereum’s EIP-8061 proposal would increase validator exit capacity while keeping the 256 ETH-per-epoch limit on new activations. Fresh deposits would therefore continue to wait before earning native staking rewards.

The proposal was in the Last Call stage on Oct. 15, with a Nov. 1 deadline for comments. Ethereum’s Glamsterdam roadmap lists EIP-8061 for inclusion and targets a mainnet launch in the fourth quarter. No activation date has been confirmed. The consensus configuration also had no activation epoch set for Gloas, the consensus fork associated with Glamsterdam.

Ethereum’s validator queue showed 1,282,776 ETH waiting to enter staking on Oct. 15, with an estimated wait of 22 days and six hours. The Oct. 14 snapshot, recorded at 21:17 UTC, showed 1,260,628 ETH waiting and an estimated delay of 21 days and 21 hours.

EIP-8061 would retain the 256 ETH-per-epoch activation limit. With each epoch lasting about 6.4 minutes, the network can activate as much as 57,600 ETH per day when the limit is fully used. A direct depositor earns no native validator rewards while waiting for activation.

The proposal would remove the fixed exit cap and make exit capacity depend on the amount of active stake. Validator consolidations would receive separate capacity. Exits would remain rate-limited, but the authors’ example based on 36 million ETH of active stake produces about four times the current exit capacity and twice the consolidation capacity.

For a 32 ETH deposit waiting the 21.875 days estimated in the Oct. 14 snapshot, foregone gross rewards would be about 0.038 ETH at a 2% annual rate, 0.058 ETH at 3% and 0.077 ETH at 4%. The estimates assume a constant rate and exclude compounding, operating costs, taxes, penalties and other returns. After a 10% rewards fee, the amounts would be about 0.035 ETH, 0.052 ETH and 0.069 ETH. Solo validators do not pay that fee.

Liquid staking services can provide exposure to rewards from validators that are already active. In Lido’s mainnet core pool, users receive stETH and hold shares in the pool. New deposits can remain in a buffer or Ethereum’s pending-deposit queue before becoming productive. New shares can participate in later reward distributions, spreading earnings from active validators across a larger amount of capital.

At a 3% gross reward rate and a 10% fee, the approximate holder rate would be 2.70% when all pooled capital is productive. If 5% of the capital is inactive, the rate would be about 2.565%; if 10% is inactive, it would be about 2.43%. The reduction affects earnings per unit rather than immediately reducing the depositor’s principal.

Exiting involves more than the validator exit queue. A full validator operating normally can continue earning rewards until its scheduled exit epoch. Consensus rules then impose a 256-epoch withdrawability delay, equal to about 27.3 hours, followed by a withdrawal sweep. EIP-8061 would address the exit-queue stage without removing those later delays.

Lido users place stETH in a first-in, first-out withdrawal queue, wait for oracle finalization and then claim ETH. Selling stETH on the secondary market can avoid that protocol queue, but the sale depends on market liquidity and price and does not guarantee an immediate exchange for one ETH.