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ETH Ethereum Pledge: The Deep Logic of Lido's Centralized Governance
In a recent analysis report, Dr. Dana Love conducted an in-depth analysis of the current situation of a small number of operators centrally controlling the pledge of Ethereum (ETH) in the Lido liquidity pledge ecosystem. As the leading liquidity pledge agreement on Ethereum, Lido's control mechanism and governance framework are facing increasingly stringent scrutiny. These issues have an important impact on the development of decentralized finance (DeFi).
Who holds control?
Dr. Love observed a key phenomenon: About 8 million ETH (worth US$16.5 billion) are managed by only 34 node operators. This finding suggests that Lido is currently operating more like a centralized control model than an open, decentralized system. Love pointed out that simply focusing on the number of validators may obscure the real core issue-who is in essence in control of these pledged ETH. He emphasized that the number of verifiers has never been a reasonable criterion to measure the degree of decentralization. What really matters is what proportion of pledged assets is actually controlled by a small number of operators.
Audit Module v2: A new beginning or a continuation of an old model?
Lido plans to launch an audit module v2 to set structured bond requirements for its audit operators. Each operator is required to submit a certain amount of ETH as collateral, which may face forfeiture due to validator downtime or poor management. The initial requirement is to provide 11 ETH bonds for the first verifier key, and the bond requirement will be reduced accordingly for each additional verifier managed by the same operator.
In contrast, Lido's community pledge module requires less collateral, providing a seemingly more accessible path for new operators. This difference raises questions about the balance between economic efficiency and fairness within the system. The review module v2 requires the first verifier to provide collateral for 11 ETH, while the community pledge module reduces the entry threshold for new verifiers to 2.4 ETH. Governance is still dominated by committees, and major decisions need to be approved through multiple signatures.
With the advancement of Ethereum Pectra upgrades and updates such as EIP-7251, validator resources have been merged, but Lido's governance challenges have become more prominent: stakeholder power has not expanded with validator integration. The centralization of resources by validators does not mean that the governance power of ETH will become more democratic. On the contrary, this power remains highly concentrated.
The time when Lido's audit module v2 will be on the Ethereum main network has not yet been determined, and its smart contract is still under audit. This evolving ecosystem of bond requirements and committee governance mechanisms continues to spark important debate-how decentralized the Ethereum pledge is, and who will enjoy and bear its ultimate benefits and risks.
