ssv.network, a validation infrastructure provider, has announced the introduction of a new ecosystem fund to aid the decentralization of Ethereum proof-of-stake. The company said that this step will encourage innovation around Ether (ETH) staking technology. The company made the announcement on January 19 about the ecosystem fund, which is worth $50 million and would help companies build applications that use distributed validation technology, or DVT.

The primary goal of the fund is to provide financial support for DVT use cases that contribute to Ethereum’s efforts to decentralize the platform in the long term.

DVT is an open source protocol and has the ability to distribute the tasks of a validator across several different nodes.

Because more DVT implementation results in more decentralization, the protocol was an essential part of the roadmap that Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin developed for Eth2.

SSV noted the fact that several VC investors, including Digital Currency Group, HashKey, NGC, Everstake, GSR, and SevenX, have advocated the use of Ethereum’s DVT.

SSV said that it had already contributed $3 million for developer prizes and that $1.2 million had been distributed to more than 20 proof-of-stake projects. Some of these projects include Blockscape, ANKR, and Moonstake.

“Ethereum is now protected by a small set of corporations,” says Alon Muroch, core development lead at SSV. “When you put all these companies together, they control the entire blockchain.”

As he stated, the goal of DVT technology is to “share the security of Ethereum by enabling quick and simple access to an open source public good that will totally revolutionize the way staking is done today.”

The switch from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake on Ethereum will take place in stages, with each phase aiming to improve the scalability, security, and decentralization of the network.

The change led to the implementation of ETH staking, in which users take an active role in validating transactions.

On Ethereum, the minimum amount of ETH that must be staked to qualify as a validator is 32.

According to recent reports, the demand for liquid staking in ETH increased in early December.

Staked ETH was characterized as the “first profitable instrument to reach sizable size in DeFi” by blockchain analytics firm Nansen.