Is it worth it to stake your Ether?
By Ethereum (https://www.ethereum.org/assets) [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Ethereum is switching to Proof of Stake as soon as early 2018. The Casper protocol has been formalized, the specification is complete, and now the implementation phase can begin. Depending on how long it takes to implement and test may determine how it all plays out.
The question is will it actually be worth it to stake Ether in the first place? Will people be able to do it securely? I have my doubts that individuals will be able to securely stake if we are talking large amounts of Ether (1000+) because the price of 1000 Ether could reach into the millions of dollars. There may be attempts to decentralize this with staking pools but again the question remains whether or not people will think it's worth it to stake?
What amount of interest from staking would it take to be deemed worth it? In my opinion it has to be over 6%. The federal reserve gives 6% dividends to all banks who are a member so if the federal reserve operates in this fashion then it's a very similar structure to the federal reserve. At the same time inflation exists so if the interest from staking isn't high enough people would be foolish to bother and this is where things are most concerning.
In stocks a person can get around 8% yearly growth in value along with 4-5% annual dividends. So why would someone choose Ether over stocks? A company might choose Ether for political reasons but why would an individual investor choose a naturally high risk investor to park their wealth?
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