Protocols
Ethereum's validator set is consolidating — and researchers are worried
The number of independent operators has fallen for four straight quarters even as staked supply grows, network data shows.
By Sana Iqbal · · 7 min read
Protocols Reporter
Sana Iqbal
London, United Kingdom · Writing for Loud & Proud Records since January 2026
Sana Iqbal covers the engineering layer: consensus changes, client diversity, rollup design, cryptography research and the governance processes that ship them.
She reads specifications and call transcripts, runs archive node queries for her own data, and states clearly when a number is an estimate.
Sana holds a computer science degree and previously worked in distributed systems engineering before moving to journalism.
Contact: sana.iqbal@loudandproudrecords.com
- Beats
- Consensus, Rollups, Client software, Cryptography
- Languages
- English, Urdu
Stories by Sana Iqbal
Protocols
Rollup teams keep slipping their sequencer decentralisation dates
Six of the eight largest rollups still run a single sequencer, and four have moved their published target dates at least once.
By Sana Iqbal · · 6 min read
Reviews
MetaMask review: the browser wallet everyone uses, warts included
3.8/5Compatibility with essentially every EVM application is unmatched. In-wallet swap pricing and a cluttered interface are the price of that reach.
By Sana Iqbal · · 6 min read
Reviews
Rabby Wallet review: the clearest transaction previews in crypto
4.6/5Rabby shows what a signature will actually do before you approve it, and switches networks automatically. For active DeFi users it has quietly overtaken the incumbents.
By Sana Iqbal · · 6 min read
Protocols
Proving costs fall again as zero-knowledge workloads move to dedicated hardware
Benchmarks published by three teams show order-of-magnitude improvements — with caveats about which circuits were measured.
By Sana Iqbal · · 7 min read