We need to start thinking hard about validator privacy
If you dont want to be held liable for the risk of processing illegal transactions dont run a node that has a risk of processing illegal transactions.
— Rohan Grey (@rohangrey) December 3, 2020
We're seeing a narrative emerge that would have those who run a node be held responsible for the legality or illegality of the transactions processed by that node.
The Unintended(?) Consequences of the STABLE Act
— Neeraj K. Agrawal (@NeerajKA) December 3, 2020
On purpose or not, the bill could turn even node operators into criminalshttps://t.co/cWr74nYpMG pic.twitter.com/CXWKL0M0Hm
A narrative that has led to a bill that, if passed, could turn Ethereum node operators in the United States into outlaws.
ECB's Pres. Lagarde on Stablecoins: If widely adopted, they could threaten financial stability and monetary sovereignty.
— FXGlobe Market News (@Fxglobe_1) November 30, 2020
A narrative that, judging by Christine Lagarde's recent musings , may have a chance of gaining traction even in Europe.
Under the bill, *networks that facilitate unlawful activity will be recognized as facilitating unlawful activity*. I understand your view is that it shouldn't be node operator's problem to worry about the real-world effects of the networks they maintain. I don't think it holds up
— Rohan Grey (@rohangrey) December 5, 2020
And while it is always healthy to hope for the best at the start of a struggle, it is also wise to prepare for the worst.
It’s a bit scary how easy it can be to find the human behind a particular validator. https://t.co/odj8euWl85
— ً (@lightclients) December 2, 2020
As it stands, deanonymisation in Eth2 is frighteningly simple. To fail to address this is to risk the arrestation of our very thoughts and ideas, and the unjust persecution of the humans they belong to. In a word, it is a failure of our humanity at the deepest level.
Just some more thoughts on validator privacy.https://t.co/ajXcGNeV6L
— Mikerah is hiring for HashCloak (@badcryptobitch) March 27, 2020
If we are to stand a hope of living up to our ideals, of protecting our fundamental rights – to privacy, liberty, freedom of thought and expression -- across all jurisdictions, we, the Ethereum community, need to start by seriously engaging with the existing research on validator privacy. We need to provide funding to teams willing to accelerate this research, and start turning these ideas into implementations we can test.
Now is not the time to stand idly by.
Further reading
Validator privacy research discussions
- (Brainstorming) An attempt at validator privacy inspired by Dandelion++
- RLN incentives for p2p networks
- Anonymity: a ZKP to remove the mapping ip address / wallet’s public key of a validator
- How can validators in a PoS network efficiently hide their IP addresses
- Considerations for Network-level Validator Privacy in Proof of Stake
- Exploring a hybrid networking architecture for improved validator privacy in ETH2.0