News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Ethereum Proof of Stake FAQ by Taek on Saturday August 19, 2017 @04:59PM (#15055567)
Long term hodlers who haven't locked their coins into staking can respond quickly to network events such as Bitcoin-cash. People who are running mining businesses can at least sell the business if they suddenly need access to a lot of capital. With proof of stake, it really is locked up for whatever period of time.

If your staking period is just a couple of weeks, this is probably less significant than owning a mining farm. But if your staking period is several months, the opportunity cost probably is greater than mining or hodling, because you sacrifice a lot in terms of flexibility.

Re:Ethereum Proof of Stake FAQ by wmf on Saturday August 19, 2017 @08:53PM (#15056406)
When you put it that way, I expect to see a secondary market for stake. This could be implemented by selling the private key or by delegation similar to a mining pool.
Re:Ethereum Proof of Stake FAQ by DennisP on Saturday August 19, 2017 @09:59PM (#15056615)
Selling the private key would be a bad idea since you can't guarantee the seller destroys it. But you could have the staker address be a contract, with an ownership that can be transfered.
Re:Ethereum Proof of Stake FAQ by Taek on Sunday August 20, 2017 @05:15AM (#15057630)
You could use an HSM to hold the private key and then sell the HSM. Overall it's still a bad idea to buy an HSM because you don't know what other transactions have been signed, but maybe the HSM keeps a history of everything it has signed as well.

Which, if you can still sell your staked coins, what is the point of locking them up in the first place?

Re:Ethereum Proof of Stake FAQ by DennisP on Sunday August 20, 2017 @02:44PM (#15059670)
Good point. Maybe they'll only allow deposits from non-contract addresses.