Ethereum Has Become More Centralized Since the Merge and Shanghai Upgrades: JPMorgan (2024)

FAQs

Ethereum Has Become More Centralized Since the Merge and Shanghai Upgrades: JPMorgan? ›

10 Years of Decentralizing the Future

A centralised Ethereum would be more prone to failures or attacks on key infrastructure points, reducing the network's overall resilience. This could lead to downtime, loss of funds, or compromised data integrity, undermining user confidence in the platform.

Glassnode data shows that 85% of Ethereum's total supply is held by entities that have 100 ETH or more, and 30% of the supply is in the hands of (wallets of) those with over 100,000 ETH. Ethereum's centralization issue is even more apparent with the shift to proof of stake.

Tyrone was previously a Senior Blockchain Product Manager in J.P. Morgan's Blockchain Center of Excellence and was also the Product Lead for Quorum, an open-sourced Ethereum-based blockchain platform built for Enterprise use.

Ethereum has successfully completed a major software upgrade that should make using the blockchain network ecosystem cheaper. Referred by developers as Dencun, the update lowers expenses for so-called Layer 2 networks — dozens of chains like Arbitrum, Polygon and Coinbase Global Inc.'s Base that link to Ethereum.

The Risks of Centralization

The centralization of Ethereum poses significant risks, including the potential for regulatory capture, reduced network resilience, and a departure from the core principles of blockchain technology.

The higher the numbers, the better decentralization. Right now, Ethereum's Nakamoto Coefficient is 2, which indicates serious concentration or centralization risk.

Ethereum is a decentralized blockchain platform that establishes a peer-to-peer network that securely executes and verifies application code, called smart contracts. Smart contracts allow participants to transact with each other without a trusted central authority.

Bitcoin must be decentralized on several levels in order to maintain security, censorship-resistance, and its open, transparent monetary policy. On several of these levels, Ethereum has shown itself to be more centralized than Bitcoin.

As an open-source, decentralized network, Ethereum is maintained and guided by a decentralized network of hundreds of thousands of developers from around the world. Since Ethereum is a decentralized protocol, no single entity unilaterally controls or owns it.

What blockchain is JPMorgan using? ›

Onyx Digital Assets

A blockchain network enabling the exchange of value for various types of digital assets.

JPMorgan on Friday launched programmable payments through Onyx , the bank's digital asset and blockchain unit. The feature is designed for blockchain-based accounts on the JPM Coin digital currency system.

The size of JPMorgan's blockchain unit puts the firm in the same ballpark as that of financial giants that have openly embraced crypto, like Fidelity or BNY Mellon. However, all of JPMorgan's transactions involve JPM Coin — the company's own stablecoin, which it offers to institutional clients.

Ethereum is a decentralized blockchain and development platform. It allows developers to build and deploy applications and smart contracts. Ethereum utilizes its native cryptocurrency, ether (ETH), for transactions and incentivizes network participants through proof-of-stake (PoS) validation.

The Dencun upgrade has successfully launched on Ethereum mainnet making it one of the biggest upgrades to support Layer 2's in scaling Ethereum. Now with the Ethereum mainnet upgrade complete, we expect the ArbOS Atlas upgrade to be… The layer-2 network Starknet confirmed the it had started submitting data blobs.

ETH is a decentralised network that previously used a PoW consensus mechanism but transitioned to a PoS protocol recently. In contrast, Solana is more centralised.

Because the last few blocks of the blockchain are susceptible to change, it is easy to think that blockchains are eventually consistent, when in fact they can provide exponentially stronger consistency models with increasing latency. We must keep in mind that no single consistency model is ideal for all use cases.

The recent surge in Ethereum staking has resulted in increased centralization and reduced staking yield, said JPMorgan analysts. They highlighted Lido controlling the majority of Ethereum staking activity.