A researcher at the Ethereum Foundation has discovered that the IP addresses of ETH stakers are being tracked. He assumes that this is only part of the tracked sensitive metadata of the owners of the air.

In the Bankless podcast, Ethereum Foundation (EF) researcher Justin Drake said that, according to him, all IP addresses of ether stakers (ETH) can be tracked and correlated with the data of the owners of the crypto asset. Drake did not divulge his source for the information, citing internal EF data.

In addition, the researcher argues that collecting IP address data is just the tip of the iceberg. In fact, this is only part of a larger collection of Ether owner metadata, which includes deposit addresses, withdrawal addresses, commission recipients, and more.

Drake suggested that data about the most active and involved members of the Ethereum community is collected and analyzed in this way. Deliberate misuse of sensitive data can pose serious threats to Ethereum, such as making the network vulnerable to Sybil attacks.

First of all, the impact of a Sybil attack can be aimed at gaining undue influence on network decisions. Depending on the goal, it is enough for an attacker to create or control a number of aliases that will allow them to gain disproportionate control over network solutions.

Another negative consequence could be a situation where, in addition to collecting information, someone will deliberately censor the network and deny access to certain users or reject transactions. Drake’s message excited podcast listeners. Commenting on his performance on Twitter, some users called ether “the real coin of observation”.

This is not the first time that the crypto community is concerned about the issue of personal data privacy. In November, ConsenSys, the team at the Ethereum Metamask wallet, began collecting IP addresses to comply with KYC and AML requirements.