Classic Staking

Ethereum 2.0 is an ambitious multi-year network upgrade of Ethereum. The upgrade is intended to achieve better scalability, security and decentralization of Ethereum 2.0.

Proof of Stake has validators instead of miners to propose and finalize blocks on a blockchain. Rewards are distributed to honest validators, while those who act maliciously will be penalized.

Staking is the act of depositing ETH to activate a validator software that secures the Ethereum network. In exchange for processing transactions and creating blocks, validators earn rewards. To participate, you must deposit at least 32 ETH. Following the Pectra upgrade, a single validator can now hold an effective balance of up to 2048 ETH, allowing you to stake large amounts without managing hundreds of separate nodes.

Staking carries risks such as slashing (a penalty for malicious behavior) and downtime (minor penalties for going offline), both of which can reduce your ETH balance. Additionally, funds are not instantly liquid; withdrawing requires passing through a network exit queue that can take days depending on traffic. Finally, because you maintain full custody, losing your withdrawal keys or seed phrase will result in the permanent loss of your funds.

In the current iteration of Ethereum (Eth1), new blocks of transactions are created using Proof of Work, a consensus mechanism in which specialized computers race to be the first to solve a difficult math problem.

Ethereum 2.0 (Eth2) is a Proof of Stake network, in which holders stake their coins to become validators eligible to propose and verify blocks and receive rewards for it. These validators are disincentivized from attempting to cheat by a system of penalties for engaging in malicious behavior.

Because staking does not require any specialized hardware, the barrier to entry to becoming a block producer is dramatically lowered, and anyone holding ETH can participate in securing the network and earning rewards.

Your staking rewards depend on Ethereum network conditions; stakefish charges 0% commission on consensus-layer rewards and retains 100% of execution-layer rewards, including priority fees and MEV since Glamsterdam upgrade

The only requirement for becoming a staker is owning ETH. Most non-custodial staking services like ours require the full 32 ETH for each validator. If you would like to stake with less than 32 ETH, you may want to look into staking pools. You can also consider running your own validator.

At the moment, it is only possible to use a Ledger Nano X or Nano S to stake on Ethereum 2.0.

Staking Ethereum from your Ledger is a simple process. There may be some differences between platforms, but the main requirement is connecting your hardware wallet to MetaMask.

You may need to enable "Contract Interaction" in your Ledger device settings. If you don’t have an account on MetaMask, you can create one without saving any data about that new web wallet and move forward to connecting your Ledger.

You can initiate a withdrawal at any time; withdrawals are fully live on the Ethereum network.

Partial Withdrawals: Following the Pectra upgrade, rewards auto-compound to increase your stake. Only amounts exceeding the 2048 ETH cap are automatically sent to your wallet.

Full Withdrawals: To withdraw your principal stake, you must signal a voluntary exit. Your funds will pass through a network queue (typically taking a few days) before arriving in your wallet.

Once you deposit your ETH, there are two steps before you start earning rewards:

Deposit Verification (~12–24 hours): The Consensus Layer waits for a safety period (approx. 2048 blocks) to ensure your deposit transaction on the Execution Layer is finalized and irreversible. You do not need to take any action during this time.

Activation Queue (Variable): After verification, your validator enters the Entry Queue. The network limits how many new validators can join per day (the "churn limit").

Note: Due to high demand, this wait time can be significant (ranging from days to over a month).
You can check the current estimated wait time and your validator's status at:
https://validatorqueue.com (Best for checking current queue length)
https://beaconcha.in (Best for tracking your specific validator)

Attestations can be positive but still return a negative reward. This is an aspect of the protocol that will be addressed in the future to provide more clarity.

The issue is currently being discussed here: https://github.com/gobitfly/eth2-beaconchain-explorer/issues/188

To start you will need to acquire the transaction ID for your deposit.

You can do this two ways: by looking in your MetaMask history at the last transaction, or by getting the validator address from your dashboard and then searching for it on beaconcha.in.

Once you have your transaction ID, you can view it on etherscan to verify that your withdrawal credential matches what’s in the deposit-*.json.