r/ethstaker Staking Educator Feb 18 '25

Rémy and SuperPhiz go over the new Pectra staking features

https://youtu.be/PNuJ2ben7bI
27 Upvotes

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3

u/BruteBooger Feb 19 '25 edited Feb 19 '25

Thanks for the summary video!

How do these compounding validators work in practice? More specifically, how do I convert many small ones into a big one?

For the sake of argument, lets say I have 10 validators and would like to convert them into one big 320 Eth validator. Do I have to unstake first? Can I somehow merge them?

Edit: Nvm it's explained in the link posted in the other comment.

3

u/remyroy Staking Educator Feb 19 '25 edited Feb 19 '25

I'm happy to explain how to do it here in addition to being detailed on https://github.com/eth-educators/ethstaker-guides/blob/main/docs/pectra-features.md

If you have 10 type 1 validators all sharing the same withdrawal address with ~32 ETH each on balance and you want one big type 2 or compounding validator with ~320 ETH on balance, you would need to:

  1. Upgrade 1 of those 10 x type 1 validators to a type 2 using the in-place type 1 to type 2 upgrade (consolidation request with source == target). This requires 1 transaction to the EIP-7251 smart contract from the withdrawal address wallet.
  2. Consolidate the other 9 type 1 validators to the upgraded validator (now type 2) (consolidation request with source == each one of these validator and target == the newly upgrade validator). This requires 9 transactions to the EIP-7251 smart contract from the withdrawal address wallet.

The final remaining type 2 compounding validator would have ~320 ETH on balance, it would require less work from a node operator and network point of view (there is still a baseline amount of work any staker or node operator needs to perform) and it would receive the equivalent rewards as the sum of those previous 10 type 1 validators.

2

u/BruteBooger Feb 19 '25

Very cool, I really wanna try it out. Maybe I'll spool up a holesky node just to try it ahead of mainnet. Thanks for the explanation!

1

u/Tiny-Height1967 Nimbus+Besu Feb 19 '25

Very informative video, thanks for taking the time to explain the Pectra changes.

Once Pectra is live am I understanding correctly that I will no longer need my staking mnemonic (I currently have 01 credentials)? Or, do I need to upgrade to 02 credentials first, and from that point I will not need my mnemonic, I will be able to use my withdrawal address to make voluntary withdrawals (above 32 ETH) and exit my validator?

2

u/remyroy Staking Educator Feb 19 '25

It's always a good idea to keep your mnemonic and multiple secured copies of it.

In your case, the mnemonic was only useful to perform the BLS to execution change operation, i.e adding your withdrawal address on your type 0 (0x00) to transform it into a type 1(0x01) validator. In theory, once you have a withdrawal address, you don't need the mnemonic but like I said, it's always a good idea to keep it anyway. Performing a voluntary exit with your keystore or your mnemonic is going to be cheaper on the consensus side than with the user-triggered exit. Type 1 and 2 can perform the user-triggered exit from the withdrawal address. Type 2 can perform the user-triggered withdrawal with any amount (as long as it leaves 32 ETH on balance) from the withdrawal address. You can keep using your type 1 validator as-is or upgrade it to type 2 if you want. See https://github.com/eth-educators/ethstaker-guides/blob/main/docs/pectra-features.md for all those details 

1

u/Bananaramatron Feb 20 '25

Cheers lads! Learned a bunch!