UPDATED: February 29, 2024, 11:24 a.m. EST
Coinbase’s cloud division has additional support for Nethermind and Erigon in its staking infrastructure – with the aim of improving execution layer client diversity.
The move aims to reduce reliance on the widely used Geth execution layer client by strategically distributing validators across a variety of clients. Deployment of Nethermind clients is expected to start this week.
“The diversity of execution clients on Ethereum is a major concern for all of us at Coinbase,” the company said last month.
Ethereum clients are software applications that facilitate interaction with the Ethereum blockchain, processing transactions, and executing smart contracts. Coinbase works as one of the leading staking service providers on Ethereum, managing 138,000 validator nodes using these clients.
Coinbase’s support for Nethermind and Erigon (in addition to Geth) addresses concerns about Geth dominance, which represents more than 70% the share of execution layer clients and the risks associated with a strong dependence on a single client. These risks include centralization issues and the potential for impact if a vulnerability in the Geth client were identified.
Ethereum’s core developers are increasingly advocating for a multi-client ecosystem. Such an ecosystem would allow different clients, developed by separate teams in various programming languages, to operate.
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