Germany operates one of the world’s largest networks of Ethereum validators, according to the German Blockchain Report 2022 published by . CV VC Lab.
The report, which provides a structural overview of the country’s blockchain ecosystem, also shows that Germany accounts for nearly 6% of European blockchain funding.
European countries have a 22.8% share of all Ethereum nodes, while the US leads with 45.3%. Both countries operate more than half of the entire Ethereum ecosystem, which is concerning given the need for optimal decentralization.
According to the report, geographic decentralization is very important to network-wide decentralization. Additionally, if only a few countries control validator nodes, the risk of censoring or controlling transactions is very high.
Ethereum’s mission is to become the world’s leading smart contract computer. This is not possible when verification is in the hands of a few players.
Even better, that number has increased since last year. In 2021, the share of US Ethereum validators was his 36.92%, while Germany’s share was his 21.16%.
Despite the constant growth of the network, validator concentrations still appear to be high in certain regions.
Germany accounts for 6% of European blockchain funds
In 2022 alone, German blockchain projects raised around $8 billion. The total number of funded projects reached 220, bringing the total number of unicorns in European countries to 34.
According to reports, the country receives 2.4% of global venture capital and 6% of European blockchain funding. Interestingly, while venture funding was down 50% on a quarterly basis, the number of deals surged 10%.
Equally important, the largest share of funding went to early-stage blockchain companies, which accounted for 72% of all funding deals.
Most of the blockchain funding in 2022 was spent on infrastructure and development innovation, with VCs allocating over 55% of all funding. According to the pie chart below, DeFi ranked second with 27% funding rate, followed by NFT with 6%.
