Ether.fi CEO Mike Silagadze places $1M bet on EIP-8363

Mike Silagadze, CEO and co-founder of liquid restaking protocol ether.fi, has put his money where his governance opinions are. On August 7, 2026, Silagadze publicly offered a $1 million bet that EIP-8363, a draft Ethereum Improvement Proposal for tapered validator reward burning, will increase network concentration among validators if adopted. What EIP-8363 actually does EIP-8363, titled “Tapered Issuance Burn,” was submitted on August 4, 2026. Its authors include Justin Drake, a prominent researcher at the Ethereum Foundation. The core mechanic is straightforward in concept: partially burn validator rewards at a rate that scales with the total amount of ETH staked across the network. The burn formula scales as the effective staking balance divided by 60.25 million ETH, raised to the power of 1.5, and capped at 100%. In practical terms, as the amount of staked ETH approaches roughly 50% of the total supply (around 60.25 million ETH), performing validators would reach net zero issuance. Their rewards would be entirely burned. Currently, about 41.5 million ETH is staked, representing roughly 34% of the total supply, with yields hovering around 2.67%. The proposal’s most aggressive ef...