Swiss “Crypto Valley” pioneer Bitcoin Suisse is going to help its customers secure the Ethereum 2.0 network and get paid for doing so.
The crypto-broker and custodian announced as much on November 27th, when the firm unveiled the roll out of its coming Ethereum 2 Staking Service offering. Through it, customers will be able to stake ether (ETH) to earn rewards for validating the new network, whose first phase is set to begin next year.
Of course, anyone with the required amount of ether — 32 ETH — will be able stake once Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus is activated on Ethereum amid the smart contract platform’s episodic Serenity upgrade. To that end, Bitcoin Suisse aims to streamline the entire process so users don’t have to migrate their own ether to the new blockchain or maintain their own hardware. The firm said:
“Bitcoin Suisse’s staking service will solve these challenges for clients, letting them earn rewards without having to consider any arbitrary validator amount and without the headache of having to own and operate network infrastructure. As part of the staking service, the token migration is included.”
To facilitate the service, Bitcoin Suisse noted it will keep 15 percent of customers’ staking rewards for covering “all costs associated with infrastructure setup, protocol upgrades, maintenance, servers, etc.”
Prepared to Be at the Fore
Notably, this summer Bitcoin Suisse applied for banking and securities dealer licenses with its home country’s top financial regulator, the Swiss Financial Markets Supervision Authority (FINMA).
If the licenses are eventually granted, Bitcoin Suisse would be able to, among other things, facilitate trading around cryptocurrencies FINMA sees as securities. That development would also make the firm one of the first licensed institutions in the world to offer Ethereum staking services.
Moreover, the securities dealer license application may prove prescient if FINMA ends up viewing ETH 2.0 as a security. It’s hardly a given that will be the case, but it’s an idea brought to mind by recent comments from Heath Tarbert, the current chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Earlier this month, Chairman Tarbert said the CFTC was in the process of examining whether ether would remain a commodity — or shift into a security — during the Ethereum 2.0 transition.
With that said, major regulators like FINMA may conclude that ETH 2.0 is definitely not a security. However, if the watchdog were to decide to go the other way with that decision, Bitcoin Suisse would have its bases covered upon securing its financial licenses.
Indeed, that’s precisely why the firm applied for the license. The company sees the cryptoverse as shifting decisively in the direction of regulation and that those who can’t keep up with the ensuing requirements will fall by the wayside.
“We believe that within this new regulatory environment, companies without the necessary licenses will have a limited ability to serve clients with the full spectrum of high quality, innovative crypto-financial products and solutions,” a Bitcoin Suisse spokesperson said in July.
Ethereum Foundation Releases Staking Primer
As things currently stand, Ethereum 2.0 could begin as early as Q1 2020. Barring any development delays, staking — which will be introduced in “Phase 0” of the Serenity upgrade — which now just around the corner.
With that reality in mind, Ethereum Foundation researcher Carl Beekhuizen just published a new explainer post, “Validated: Staking on eth2 #0.” As an intro to a series of related articles, Beekhuizen used the piece to generally outline Serenity’s phases and explain the basics of what Ethereum stakeholders can expect from the new network’s design.
Are you interested in becoming an eth2 validator? Check out the first post on staking from #ethereum researcher @carlbeek!https://t.co/En5N4q5WxT
— Ethereum (@ethereum) November 27, 2019
Therein, the researcher noted the new system has been created to withstand attackers, lazy users, and even major catastrophes.
“For these reasons, eth2 should be capable of surviving World War 3,” Beekhuizen said.
