Centralized exchange Binance appears to have two validators running on the Cosmos Hub, prompting a possible governance proposal to remedy centralization implications.
According to Mintscan.io data, Binance has two validators: “Binance Node” is the number six validator for ATOM and “Binance Staking” fills the 14 spot. Worries of centralization have been expressed on social media with one Twitter user, Lobo, alluding to Binance’s dual validators as a Sybil attack on the Cosmos Hub. Lobo put up a poll on Twitter asking if Sybil attacks are tolerated on the Atom Hub.
So Sybill Attacks are now tolerated on the $ATOM Hub?
Binance now has
Binance Node #6
Binance Staking #14— Løbø ⚛️ (@lobojuno) November 10, 2022
The poll response is overwhelmingly “Big no go” with the lion’s share percentage of votes.
A discussion under the Tweet covered many topics, such as centralized exchange Huobi also running two validators, possible systemic risk of centralization, increasing the validator set to 1,000, and putting up a governance proposal to remove Binance’s second validator.
At the core of Lobo’s argument is that smaller validators get pushed out of the active set by bigger validators running more than one validator.
Replying to Lobo, Cosmos ecosystem validator, Jacob Gadikan, said he hopes ATOM 2.0 passes and has put thought into this problem across other Cosmos chains.
Vote YES to slash 100% from delegators with same brand validators 1ubp from passage.
Vote NO to be a permissive chain with no qualms about slot override.
Abstain to express no strong opinion.
Vote NOWITHVETO to make this prop fail if veto reaches 1/3 and burn the deposit.
— Jacob Gadikian (@gadikian) November 10, 2022
“Exchanges shouldn’t have voting power even if they have many delegations,” Twitter user Chain of Secrets said. “They should be banned from governance.”
Cosmos News reached out to Binance and received an automated response. Any comment will be added to this story.
