Original article by: André Beganski
Original title: Ethereum Creator Vitalik Buterin Proposes Huge Changes to Network
Original source: Decrypt
Compiled by: Koala, Mars Finance
Vitalik Buterin explored several potential improvements that could make Ethereum cheaper to support and faster overall.
It turns out that despite years of technical tinkering and debate, Vitalik Buterin was not satisfied with the first overhaul of Ethereum’s consensus mechanism.
In a blog post on Monday, the ethereum co-founder mused on several potential improvements to ethereum’s proof-of-stake model. These include lowering the financial threshold for individual stakers and reducing the time it takes to finalize an ethereum block.
Two years ago, a “merge” fundamentally changed the way Ethereum transactions are validated. Instead of relying on a network of power-hungry computers to secure the network, Ethereum transitioned to a system where validators dedicate assets to the network.
Validators are rewarded by assembling blocks of transactions and proving the accuracy of other transactions. To participate in the process, validators lock up 32 ETH ($84,000), effectively acting as skin in the game. However, Buterin believes the threshold could be significantly lowered to 1 ETH ($2,600).
“Poll after poll has repeatedly shown that the main factor preventing more people from solo staking is the 32 ETH minimum,” he wrote. “Lowering the minimum to 1 ETH would solve this problem to the point where other issues become the main factor limiting solo staking.”
The rate at which new validators are securing the Ethereum network has slowed down recently. According to beaconchai.in, about 73,000 validators have joined since surpassing 1 million active validators in April. In the past month, that number has approached 3,000.
Lowering Ethereum’s staking requirements for validators could also address some of the network’s centralization issues. Currently, Lido Finance, the leading decentralized platform for staking ETH, accounts for 28% of all staked ETH, according to the Dune dashboard.
The second part of Buterin’s proposed improvements focuses on transaction finality, a term that refers to Ethereum transactions that are included in blocks that cannot be altered.
Buterin wrote that as of now, Ethereum transactions take about 15 minutes to complete. This is because Ethereum's progress is measured in epochs that occur every 6.4 minutes. Each epoch consists of 32 time slots, and a new block is usually produced every 12 seconds.
As Blocknative CTO and co-founder Chris Meisl explains, after two epochs, it became infeasible from a cost perspective for an Ethereum block to be revoked by an attacker. At that point, “you can consider it pretty secure,” he wrote in a blog post last year.
Buterin wrote that “single-slot finality” would reduce finality times to once every 12 seconds. Combined with lower staking requirements, it would “bring Ethereum’s properties in line with (more centralized) performance-focused [layer-1] chains,” he wrote.
However, Buterin acknowledged that there are several ways to make single-slot finality work, ranging from brute-force options involving advanced cryptography to a two-tier system for stakers.
Buterin’s blog post comes amid a growing debate around layer 2 networks. While Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade in March gave them a new way to offer lower transaction costs to users, it also led to a period of inflation in Ethereum’s circulating supply.
Meanwhile, Ethereum’s core developers are preparing for the network’s next major upgrade, Pectra. The first part of the upgrade, which also adjusts the way Ethereum stakers are rewarded, is expected to be released sometime early next year.
