EIP 8148 is the key to unlocking validator consolidations for all validator operators.
Why? Because validator type 0x02 was flawed in is original design and failed to consider validator behavior along the following lines:
- It failed to recognize that many validator operators (both pro and solo) need predictible income in order to pay taxes, business and living expenses, etc. While 0x01 validators provide for this ability with their automated sweep feature at 32 ETH, 0x02’s need for an Ethereum transaction below the 2048 ETH threshold followed by a highly unpredictable time in a withdrawal queue (a poor UX in itself) removes the predictible income nature of the 0x01 validator.
- The 2048 ETH threshold for automated sweeping is too high for both smaller operators and potentially for larger operators too. That level is so high that each validator key would now be worth ~$5 million with ETH at $2,500 (or potentially ~$20 million per key with ETH at $10k) eliminating the possibility of its adoption by the vast majority of solo stakers and potentially also being too high for professional operators that might prefer a lower risk-per-key threshold of, say, $500k -or $1mil, etc. If the 0x02 automated sweep level was configurable, it would encourage a far greater lavel of validator consolidation than we have experienced so far.
- Those operators that do consolidate to 0x02 at some number less than the 2048 ETH threshold are now trapped by the unpredictable timing of withdrawal cashflow that 0x02 demands. The best solution to mitigate this problem is EIP 8148 to make the sweep threshold configurable.
Given that a dramatically smaller validator set makes almost every ambitious consensus redesign easier and that Ethereum also wants many independent operators (not necessarily millions of validator indices), EIP 8148 helps encourage both of these two ideals simultaneously. It deserves vigorous support.