Виталик Бутерин о долгом ожидании вывода ETH: стейкинг как долг перед блокчейном Translation: Vitalik Buterin on the long wait for ETH withdrawals: staking as a duty to the blockchain

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin dispelled some concerns regarding the prolonged waiting period for the withdrawal of coins staked in the system.

As of September 18, there are 2.49 million ETH awaiting withdrawal, and fully unlocking this amount will take over 43 days.

This figure marks an all-time high, causing unrest within the community. In a now-deleted post, Michael Marcantonio, head of the DeFi sector at Galaxy Digital, labeled the length of the staking withdrawal queue as «alarming.»

He contrasted Ethereum with Solana, where withdrawals can be completed in just two days.

«It is unclear how a network that takes 45 days to return assets can be a suitable candidate to drive a new era of global capital markets,» Marcantonio remarked.

Buterin later joined the discussion, suggesting that exiting staking is «more like the decision of a soldier to leave the army.»

«Staking is a solemn commitment to safeguard the blockchain. The friction involved in exiting the game is part of the deal. An army cannot maintain its integrity if a portion of its members can suddenly leave at any moment,» he explained.

Buterin acknowledged that the current queue structure is not entirely efficient. However, he warned that naively reducing the constants could make the chain significantly less secure for nodes that rarely connect to the network.

Marcantonio faced a wave of criticism for his post, with many community members rushing to defend Ethereum.

Former ConsenSys product manager Jimmy Ragosa stated that the Galaxy leader’s critique of ETH only succeeded in damaging business relationships with other companies.

«It seems that Galaxy forced its DeFi head to delete all of his FUD messages related to Ethereum. [Marcantonio] engaged in extremely underhanded psychological operations, but I am firmly against corporate censorship,» noted lawyer Gabriel Shapiro.

FogoChain co-founder Robert Sags took an ambiguous stance by comparing staking to banking. In his view, both a 45-day and a two-day wait for withdrawals are too long.

«Exiting staking is not the same as withdrawing client funds from a bank. It is akin to withdrawing venture or charter capital,» countered a user by the handle chainyoda.

It is worth noting that on September 15, the Ethereum network celebrated three years since the activation of the The Merge upgrade. A pivotal moment marked by the blockchain’s transition to the Proof-of-Stake algorithm and the introduction of staking.