Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin expressed his views on the increasingly severe issue of staking withdrawal queues, which have now extended to over six weeks.
On September 18, he posted on the X platform, pointing out that this mechanism is a well-considered design choice rather than a flaw, comparing it to military discipline.
Buterin emphasized that staking is not a casual act but a commitment to safeguarding the network. From this perspective, friction mechanisms like withdrawal delays actually serve as safety barriers.
"If anyone in the military could suddenly leave at any time, that army would not be able to maintain cohesion," he wrote, noting that Ethereum's reliability depends on ensuring that validators cannot instantaneously abandon their duties.
However, Buterin also acknowledged that the current design is not perfect. He elaborated, "This does not mean that the current staking queue design is the optimal solution, but if the threshold is blindly lowered, it would significantly reduce the chain's credibility for any nodes that are not frequently online."
Buterin's views align with those of EigenLayer founder Sreeram Kannan.
In a post on September 17, Kannan referred to Ethereum's lengthy exit period as a "conservative parameter," deeming it a crucial safety measure.
He explained that the waiting time effectively prevents worst-case scenarios, such as coordinated attacks by validators, where participants might attempt to collectively exit before facing penalties.
In light of this, Kannan warned, "Unstaking must never be instantaneous."
He further clarified that shortening the process to a few days could expose Ethereum to attacks that deplete its security assumptions. In contrast, a longer window allows for the detection and punishment of malicious behaviors like double-signing, ensuring that malicious validators cannot easily evade responsibility.
Kannan specifically pointed out that this buffering mechanism allows inactive nodes to reconnect and regularly verify the correct fork.
He emphasized that without this mechanism, competing forks could all claim legitimacy, making it difficult for offline nodes to discern the truth upon rejoining.
He concluded, "Ethereum does not adopt a fixed long-term unstaking mechanism but is designed to process withdrawals instantaneously when a small amount of staked assets exit during a specific period. However, if a large amount of staked assets simultaneously requests to exit, the queue will accumulate, potentially lasting for months in the worst-case scenario."
This strong defense comes as Ethereum's exit queue reaches an all-time high. Data from the Ethereum validator queue shows that the current withdrawal backlog has reached 43 days, involving 2.48 million ETH (approximately $11.3 billion) waiting to be withdrawn.
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