Arbitrum’s Owners Acquire Key Ethereum Development Team

▤ Summary

“The Prysm client will continue to be a leader in Ethereum node software,” Prysmatic Labs co-founder Raul Jordan told Decrypt. Danksharding, one of the most anticipated upgrades on Ethereum’s post-merge agenda, would dramatically increase the speed and ease with which huge amounts of data is verified on layer-2 networks. On top of that, we have a lot of big ideas on the L2 front we are eager to explore at Offchain.” That alignment between Prysmatic and Offchain’s priorities, however, could also be interpreted as a conflict of interest. Prysm will remain neutral on all fronts.” Whether or not that mechanism proves effective, Wednesday’s acquisition highlights the relatively small number of players in the supposedly decentralized Ethereum ecosystem. While validators do still have alternatives to turn to, if Arbitrum were to flex its control of Prysmatic in a self-serving manner, it would take less than a handful of acquisitions like today’s to permanently upend the delicate power balance currently governing Ethereum.

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