The exit epoch is not when the validator exited
· 5 min read
A voluntary exit has an epoch field, and it is very tempting to read that as "the epoch this validator exited." That is wrong in exactly the way that produces fake history. In the last 31 complete UTC days, 75.4% of mainnet voluntary exits carried an epoch more than 30 days old, or epoch 0.
The exit happened when the message landed in a canonical block. The message epoch was just the point from which the signature became valid.