Overview
- A team of six researchers filed draft EIP-8361 on Tuesday proposing a “tapered issuance burn” that destroys a rising share of newly issued validator rewards and hits 100% burn at about 60.25 million staked ETH, roughly half the supply.
- The change would only burn newly created consensus-layer issuance while leaving transaction priority fees, tips and maximal extractable value (MEV) untouched, which would become a larger portion of validator revenue.
- Authors propose an 18-month phased rollout plus preparatory months so yields fall gradually rather than instantly, and they estimate consensus-layer staking yields at current staking levels would drop from about 2.6% to near 1.2% under the new curve.
- The proposal has drawn sharp pushback from DeFi and staking participants who say lower issuance could hurt solo validators, weaken liquid-staking products and borrowing strategies, and favor large low-cost operators; critics also object to the short review window.
- EIP-8361 remains a draft under community review and faces an uncertain path to adoption because it arrived close to the Aug. 6 Hegotá inclusion deadline and lacks broad consensus; current network data show roughly 41 million ETH staked with more queued to activate, so timing matters for its impact.