Ethereum staking withdrawals (2023)
Exciting news: Ethereum staking withdrawals are coming soon. The official Ethereum update name is called the Shanghai + Capella upgrade. This update enables staking withdrawals on Ethereum, allowing people to unlock ETH staking rewards. Reward payments will automatically and regularly be sent to a provided withdrawal address linked to each validator. Users can also exit staking entirely, unlocking their full validator balance.
The update is expected to happen early April 2023:
This also pushes out timing estimations for mainnet activation of Shanghai to early April. All suggested timelines at this point though are subject to change based on the results of Shanghai activation on Sepolia and MEV-Boost testing over the next few weeks.
— Christine Kim (@christine_dkim) February 10, 2023
This is what withdrawals will look like (Zhejiang test network)
flowchart TD
X{RocketPool?} -->|Yes| R[Ready]
X --> |No| A
A{Withdrawal
credentials?} -->|Starts with `0x01`| R[Ready]
A -->|Starts with `0x00`| C
C{Validator keys
compromised?} -->|NO| W[Wait]
C -->|Maybe or Yes| D[Use CLWP ASAP];
After the update, if your validator has a balance of more than 32 ETH, the excess amount is automatically paid out to your withdrawal address. There are no transaction (gas) fees associated with receiving these rewards.
More details: https://ethereum.org/en/staking/withdrawals
If you are staking with RocketPool you don’t have to do anything.
If you are a solo staker (32ETH) , you have to check your withdrawal address. Recent stakers have already configured a correct (0x01) withdrawal address when making the 32 ETH deposit to the Staking contract. OG stakers, don’t have a withdrawal address yet, they have a BLS (0x00) address instead.
You can check what address you have by checking your validator on https://beaconcha.in and checking the “Deposits” tab.
The withdrawal credential starts with `0x00`, so this validator will need to set a withdrawal address
The withdrawal credentials start with `0x01`, so this (RocketPool) validator needs no further actions
If your “Withdrawal credentials” start with 0x01 there is nothing you should. The rewards will be automatically deposited to your withdrawal address.
If your “Withdrawal credentials” start with 0x00, you will have to configure your withdrawal address after the update. Only 16 addresses can be configured per block, so there will be a huge queue at the beginning.
If your validator seed phrase is safely stored offline, there is no need to rush. We currently recommend just waiting for the tooling to be battle-tested and the dust to settle. If you are impatient, we recommend reading the documentation of the test network instead: https://zhejiang.launchpad.ethereum.org/en/withdrawals
If you know or fear that your validator seed phrase is ☠️compromised☠️, it is important to beat potential scammers in the race to configure your withdrawal address. Your best option is the CLWP project:
- https://clwp.xyz
- https://www.reddit.com/r/ethstaker/comments/10mahzn/set_your_ethereum_validator_withdrawal_address/
⚠️ Be extra careful when setting the withdrawal address. This must be an address you control, and cannot be changed once set. If you make a mistake, you will never be able to access your deposit nor rewards in the future ⚠️