Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance said Ethereum also depends on cloud providers and warned checkpoint finality could fail if more than one-third of validators go offline.
Ethereum infrastructure remains concentrated in the United States and Europe, underscoring centralization risks even after the network’s shift to proof-of-stake (system where validators secure the chain). Research from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance found about 31% of Ethereum node activity is in the U.S. and 39% in the EU excluding the UK, while node operations also rely on cloud providers including Hetzner, AWS, and OVH. The report said Ethereum could fail to finalize checkpoints (moments when blocks become economically irreversible) if more than one-third of validators go offline. It also estimated Ethereum’s annual energy use after the Merge at 7.9 GWh, down about 99.98% from pre-Merge levels.