Discussion topic for EIP-8365: Add EIP: BLS withdrawal credential retirement by ensi321 · Pull Request #12097 · ethereum/EIPs · GitHub
This proposal retires the 0x00 (BLS) withdrawal credential type: active 0x00 validators are exited at a capped rate per epoch, and deposits creating new 0x00 validators are no longer processed. BLSToExecutionChange stays open, so a retired validator’s full balance remains recoverable at any time by rotating to 0x01.
Motivation in short: the 0x00 population has stalled at ~9,300 validators (~343k ETH) after three years of conversion since Capella, several hundred of which are likely lost keys that nobody, including the protocol, can remove. Each of them cannot register post-quantum keys, and carrying the credential type into the PQ era means maintaining hardened BLSToExecutionChange machinery indefinitely. This is the first stage of a staged deprecation (retire, drain, remove). A companion EIP covering the balance drain will get its own thread.
Data on the current 0x00 population: Dealing with Legacy 0x00 Validators - HackMD
Feedback especially wanted on MAX_RETIREMENTS_PER_EPOCH sizing, deposit-guard edge cases at the fork boundary, and from operators still holding 0x00 credentials.