How Does the Capital Requirement for Staking Influence Decentralization?

A high minimum capital requirement for staking can negatively impact decentralization by creating a barrier to entry for smaller participants. Only wealthy individuals or large pools can afford to run a validator node, leading to a concentration of power.

Conversely, a low or zero minimum requirement encourages wider participation, distributing validation power across more entities, which strengthens decentralization and Sybil resistance.

What Is the Relationship between the Staking Participation Rate and the Network’s Security Budget?
How Does the Capital Requirement for Holding the Underlying Asset Affect Market Participation?
How Does a Wider Bid-Ask Spread on an Altcoin Affect Option Pricing?
What Is the Difference between Permissioned and Permissionless Consensus?
How Can Gas Fees Influence a User’s Decision to Participate in Governance Voting?
What Is a Governance Token and How Does It Grant Voting Power?
What Is the Difference between “Staking” for Oracle Data and “Staking” for Proof-of-Stake Consensus?
How Does the DPoS Model Attempt to Solve the Low Participation Problem in Governance?

Glossar