Introduction

The Ethereum merge has been one of the most waited event on crypto during the past years. The intention of the merge were to reduce the fees of the network, facilitate the smart contracts interactions and much more.

This Ethereum upgrade or "Merge," as it's being referred to, changed how new crypto transactions take place on the blockchain.

Previously, the Ethereum blockchain, like the Bitcoin blockchain, ran on a proof-of-work model, which involves nodes, computers that are part of a large network, competing with one another to solve complicated math problems. The successful ones are then able to mine the next block of a transaction and create new coins.

The upgrade transitioned Ethereum to the proof-of-stake model, which is a more energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly system. It entails nodes being selected via an algorithm that has a preference for nodes that hold more of a network's currency.

Methods

The intention of this dashboard is to study the decentralization on Ethereum post merge. To do so, we are gonna consider the Beacon Schema provided by Flipside Crypto, where we can find a useful variables extracted from the Ethereum network.

The metrics that we are gonna analyze are:

• Attestations, slots and target evolution since the inception
• Relationship between slots and attestations
• Number of slashes over time
• Average deposits considering slashing or no-slashing
• New validators over time
• Relationship between validators and number of deposits
• Deposits metrics over time
• Distribution of validators per ETH deposited

Attestations and slashes

The Beacon Chain is the coordination mechanism of the new network, responsible for creating new blocks, making sure those new blocks are valid, and rewarding validators with ETH for keeping the network secure. The Beacon Chain introduced proof-of-stake to the Ethereum ecosystem. It was merged with the original Ethereum proof-of-work chain in September 2022. The Beacon Chain introduced the consensus logic and block gossip protocol which now secures Ethereum. Every epoch a validator proposes an attestation to the network. The attestation is for a specific slot in the epoch. The purpose of the attestation is to vote in favor of the validator's view of the chain, in particular the most recent justified block and the first block in the current epoch (known as source and target checkpoints). This information is combined for all participating validators, enabling the network to reach consensus about the state of the blockchain. An attestation is a vote by a validator about the current state of the Ethereum 2 blockchain.

In the images above, we can see how while the number of slots not vary so much over time, the amount of attestations fluctuates a little bit more. In fact, in the second image we can see how there is no any direct correlation between the number of attestations and the number of slots created. Basically, the amount of slots seems to be similar even the number of attestations.

Slashing describes the process whereby other network participants forcibly eject an offending validator from the Beacon Chain while continuously draining their balance. In the most extreme cases, a slashed validator may lose their entire stake in the network. In the other two images, we can see how the amount of slashes is not too high. In fact, the major of slashes were produced during the first days. Over the past months, only two slashes have been detected.

In the first image, we can see how the new validators number has remained constant over time, fluctuating between 5k and 30k. It is an important aspect for the decentralization because it is good for it. While more validator the network has, the higher is the difficulty to cause a fault tolerance on the net.

The evolution of the amount deposited by the validators, we can see how the trend seems to be similar over time. It ranges from 5k to 30k and the average deposited seems to be steady at around 30 ETH.

In fact, in the relationship chart we can see that there is a strong positive correlation between the number of active validators and the number of deposits.

Conclusions

Decentralization is by far one of the most important factors in a crypto ecosystem. Decentralization refers to the transfer of control and decision-making from a centralized entity to a distributed network. Then, if we take a look at the results obtained over the analysis, we can say that it seems that since the merge, the decentralization of the network has been good not only for the continues number of slots produced and for the low number of slashes, but also for the constant increase of new validators and its participations on the network.

Key insights

• While the number of slots not vary so much over time, the amount of attestations fluctuates a little bit more. In fact, in the second image we can see how there is no any direct correlation between the number of attestations and the number of slots created. Basically, the amount of slots seems to be similar even the number of attestations.
• The amount of slashes is not too high. In fact, the major of slashes were produced during the first days. Over the past months, only two slashes have been detected.
• The new validators number has remained constant over time, fluctuating between 5k and 30k. It is an important aspect for the decentralization because it is good for it. While more validator the network has, the higher is the difficulty to cause a fault tolerance on the net.
• The evolution of the amount deposited by the validators, we can see how the trend seems to be similar over time. It ranges from 5k to 30k and the average deposited seems to be steady at around 30 ETH.
• There is a strong positive correlation between the number of active validators and the number of deposits.
• The distribution of validators per amount deposited in ETH as well as the average and the total volume deposited per each group.
• The major of validators has deposited 32 ETH, the necessary to create a node, while few others deposited 1, 2, 9, 16 or 64 ETH.

In this final charts, we can see the distribution of validators per amount deposited in ETH as well as the average and the total volume deposited per each group.

On the one hand, we can see how the major of validators has deposited 32ETH, the necessary to create a node, while few others deposited 1, 2, 9, 16 or 64 ETH. It is clear that the average amount deposited on each group is the amount deposited. It seems that each valdidator only deposits one time to become a validator. The major volume has been deposited by 32 ETH group of validators as expected due to its the largest group.

Validators activity