SSV DAO Starts $50M Fund to Push Ethereum's Decentralization Plan
TL;DR SSV DAO is launching a $50 million ecosystem fund to help mature Distributed Validator Technology (DVT) infrastructure. The fund will be led by SSV and Digital Currency Group (DCG). Grantees from the initial $10 million pool will be shortlisted for this new fund. DVT is a key component of Vitalik Buterin’s Ethereum roadmap for decentralization.
SSV DAO, the decentralized autonomous organization behind the decentralized staking protocol SSV.network, is starting a $50 million ecosystem fund to help mature Distributed Validator Technology (DVT) infrastructure.
DVT refers to a technology development that would allow an Ethereum proof-of-stake validator to be run on more than one node simultaneously. The technology is a key component in Vitalik Buterin’s Ethereum roadmap for decentralization.
Because of the high cost of entry to run a validator node, critics say that the Ethereum protocol is uncomfortably centralized across only a handful of major actors. While there are just over 500,000 validators, the majority are concentrated in a handful of pools: Lido has just over 25% of the validators in its pool, Coinbase (COIN) has 11.7%, Kraken has 7%, and Binance has 5.4%.
The fund is being led by SSV and Digital Currency Group (DCG). DCG is also the parent company of CoinDesk.
In July, SSV launched a $10 million pool to distribute grants to build DVT projects using the SSV protocol. So far, it has granted $2 million, and high-performing grant recipients will be shortlisted for this new ecosystem fund. Grantees included Blockscape, ANKR, Stader, and Moonshake.
"It’s important because DVT is becoming a major focus for Ethereum,” Alon Muroch, Technical Lead, SSV Network, said to CoinDesk in a note. “More funds, companies, DAOs are getting involved. It’s going to be as widespread as Layer-2s, and Maximal Extractable Value after the tech hits the Ethereum mainnet in 2023. The funds involved are at the ground level supporting this change"