ConsenSys surveyed potential miners of ETH 2.0. What information did the 287 questionnaires reveal?

Original title: "We surveyed potential miners of ETH 2.0, and they are most concerned about this issue"
Written by: ConsenSys
Compiled by: nfStones

The successful launch of the Ethereum 2.0 mainnet requires the participation of 16,384 validator nodes in the entire network. Due to the requirement of 32 ETH for a single node, this also means that a total of 524,000 ETH needs to be pledged. Therefore, not only technical factors need to be considered, but whether there are such a large number of ETH holders willing to pledge is also a key factor in determining the success or failure of the Ethereum 2.0 mainnet.

ConsenSys led a questionnaire survey targeting a wide range of ETH holders to understand their behavior patterns, preferences, motivations, demands, and pain points, so as to help improve and optimize the participation methods of Ethereum 2.0 Staking and increase the willingness and ultimate participation of ETH holders.

The survey was conducted in February 2020 for a total of 20 days. ETH holders were found through channels such as Twitter, Reddit, Discord, Telegram, LinkedIn, and email groups, and ultimately 287 respondents were obtained.

This survey is the first large-scale survey on staking intention among ETH holders. The survey results can largely reveal the ETH holders’ cognition, motivations, and concerns about ETH2.0 and staking. Let’s take a look.

Survey Results Overview

This survey revolves around a core question: Will you participate in Staking? How to participate? This is the first question in the questionnaire, which has four answers, and therefore divides the respondents into four categories:

• Planning to run your own node (participate in staking)

• Plan to use a third-party staking service provider (participate in staking)

• Not yet decided whether to participate in Staking

• Will not participate in Staking

It can be argued that the sole purpose of the follow-up questions in the questionnaire is to provide an in-depth analysis of the portraits of these four types of coin holders. We have conducted an in-depth analysis of the survey results to help us better understand these four groups.

Of the 287 responses, 16.7% of the samples only partially completed the questionnaire and therefore the answers were not valid. ~66% of the respondents were willing to participate in Staking, half of whom wanted to run the validator node themselves and half were willing to use third-party tools. Another ~15% of the respondents said they had not yet decided whether to participate in Staking, and less than 3% said they would not participate.

Since there may be an invisible screening during the sample collection process, for example, people who are not very interested in ETH2.0 or have never heard of it will not fill out the questionnaire at all. Therefore, although according to ConsenSys' statistical caliber, most of the respondents chose to participate in Staking, the actual situation may not be so optimistic.

Therefore, for the survey results, we should pay more attention to the portraits, motivations, preferences, and pain points of the respondents, what made them choose to participate, not participate, and how to participate, and what are their demands.

The portrait analysis for different selected groups is as follows:

Next, let’s take a closer look at the responses of different groups to each key question.

Group 1: Self-built nodes

The following data shows the responses to each question by people who chose "Plan to run your own node".

Question A. When to participate in staking?

Nearly two-thirds of people in crowd 1 are willing to participate in staking in phase 0. So although both phases 0 and 1 lack token liquidity, most of people in crowd 1 are willing to test the waters in phase 0.

Question B. How many tokens are you willing to stake and how many nodes are you willing to run?

Group 1 has a relatively even preference for the staking ratio, with an average willingness to stake 50% of their coins. One-fifth of the group is willing to stake all of their coins.

34% of people are willing to run only 1 node, and 27% are willing to run more than 5 nodes. However, the number of nodes you are willing to run depends largely on how many tokens you own.

Question C. What is the expected rate of return?

Most of the people in group 1 chose an expected annualized rate of return of 5%, with an average of 5.8%, which is actually higher than the current Staking rate of some currencies such as EOS.

Question D. What node management function do you value most?

The option of preventing Slash (fine) is far ahead of all other options. It seems that everyone is afraid of being fined and making Staking unprofitable. The income may not be high, but being Slashed will not be worth it.

Other high-scoring options that people are concerned about include value-added functions such as node monitoring, node warning, balance monitoring and analysis.

Question E. Have you considered using third-party services?

Although the first choice of group 1 is to build their own nodes, 20% of them are willing to use the services of third-party staking service providers, and another 37.5% are unsure. Therefore, if better third-party services emerge, some of the people in group 1 are also potential customers.

Group 2: Using services

The following data shows the responses to each question from people who chose “Plan to use a third-party staking service provider”.

Question A. What node management function do you value most?

More than half of the respondents said they focus on compounding returns, and nearly half focus on monitoring and analyzing returns.

Other high-ratio options include: Slash protection, non-custodial wallets (decentralized), solutions for less than 32ETH, etc.

Question B. How many tokens are you willing to stake?

Similar to group 1, the tendency of staking ratio is relatively even, and on average, holders are willing to stake 50%. The proportion of those who choose to stake 30%, 50%, and all-in is relatively high.

Question C. What is the expected rate of return?

The average expected rate of return for this group is 7.6%, which is higher than the average expectation of group 1. This means that people who use third-party services also expect to get higher returns.

Question D. What is a reasonable price to charge?

After sensitivity analysis, the best fee charged by third-party services that this group is willing to accept may be between 3.6% and 9.4%. Compared with the service provider fees of other staking currencies, it is at a relatively low level.

Group 3: Undecided

The following data shows the responses to each question by people who chose “have not yet decided whether to participate in staking”.

Question A. Why hasn’t it been decided yet?

Half of the people chose "want to continue to wait and see", and other reasons for high scores on the list include: liquidity issues and less than 32ETH.

Question B. What kind of rate of return would attract you?

The average rate of return expected by this group is 9.4%, which is higher than the first two groups. Therefore, as long as the rate of return is high, it is possible to attract people who are still undecided.

Question C. How likely is it to use third-party services?

Half of the respondents remained hesitant, more than one-third said they would consider it, and only a very small number said they would not use it.

Question D. What service function do you value most?

The functions that this group of people care about are basically the same as those of Group 2: compound interest, Slash protection, non-custodial wallets (decentralization), and solutions for less than 32ETH.

Group 4: Will not participate

The following data shows the responses of people who chose "will not participate in staking" to various questions.

Question A. Why not participate?

71% of people answered directly: not enough money.

Question B. How likely is it to use third-party services?

43% said it was somewhat possible, and another 43% said it was very likely.

Interesting conclusion

A. Large investors have firm faith, while retail investors wait and see.

Because Ethereum 2.0 itself does not support "delegation" and does not support staking before Phase 2, users who do not hold 32 ETH or more cannot participate in Staking unless they use the services of a centralized institution.

According to the questionnaire analysis results, the more coins people hold, the more willing they are to participate in staking, and they are more inclined to build their own nodes. It seems that there are many big players with faith in the community.

B. Persistent preaching can increase participation

The obvious trend is: the more you know about Ethereum 2.0, the more likely you are to choose to participate in Staking; as your understanding deepens, you will be more willing to run your own nodes.

C. People who use Ledger are more willing to build their own nodes

Half of the respondents who use hardware wallets prefer to run their own nodes.

D. Favoring non-custodial wallets

The third-party service function most needed by the respondents turned out to be "non-custodial wallet". It seems that when faced with a huge asset like 32 ETH, everyone is very cautious about the safety of funds.

Other popular features include: Slash protection, compound interest, and earnings monitoring.

E. The more hesitant a person is, the more demanding he is.

Those who are willing to build their own nodes expect the lowest rate of return, those who are willing to use third-party services expect a higher rate of return than the former, and those who are currently hesitating expect the highest rate of return.

If they use third-party services, the rates they are willing to pay are completely reversed. Those who build their own nodes are willing to pay 3.9%-11.7% if they use third-party services, those who choose to use services are willing to pay 3.6%-9.4%, and those who have not yet decided are willing to pay 2.8%-7.2%.

This survey by ConsenSys gives us a basic understanding of the attitudes of ETH holders towards Ethereum 2.0 Staking. It can be clearly seen that most people have a great interest in participating in Staking. The barriers that may currently hinder their actual participation are mainly in three aspects:

• Difficulty : technical threshold for operation, difficulty in managing and monitoring nodes and funds

• Risks : Fund security, confiscation, liquidity

• Awareness : Awareness of Ethereum 2.0 and Staking

In view of the above thresholds, on the one hand, it is necessary to continue to promote and preach Ethereum 2.0 Staking so that more people can have a more comprehensive understanding of it. On the other hand, providing convenient, stable and secure large-scale node technical support for ETH2.0 is a real need.

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