In a blog post published on October 14, Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, outlined potential future improvements to the Ethereum protocol, focusing on technical improvements to its proof-of-stake (PoS) system. Titled “Possible Futures of the Ethereum Protocol, Part 1: The Merger,” the article examines strategies to improve stability, performance, and accessibility while addressing centralization risks.
First, Buterin looks back at Ethereum’s successful transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake, aka “The Merge,” almost two years ago, noting that “this proof-of-stake worked remarkably well in terms of stability, performance and avoidance of centralization risks. ” He stressed, however, that “there are still important areas where proof of stake needs to be improved.”
Future Improvements for Ethereum
One of the main goals of the position is to achieve the purpose of a single slot and reduce the minimum stake requirement to democratize participation in the network. Currently, it takes 2-3 epochs (around 15 minutes) to finalize a block, and a minimum of 32 ETH is required to become a validator. Buterin highlights the conflict between minimizing staking requirements, reducing finality time, and minimizing node overhead.
“Today, it takes 2-3 epochs (~15 minutes) to finalize a block, and 32 ETH is required to be a staker,” he wrote. He identified the goals of finalizing blocks in a single location and allowing validators to stake with as little as 1 ETH. “Poll after survey repeatedly shows that the main factor preventing more people from betting solo is the 32 ETH minimum,” notes Buterin.
To address these challenges, he discusses several approaches. The first is to implement better signature aggregation protocols, potentially using zero-knowledge proofs (ZK-SNARK), to process the signatures of millions of validators in each location. Another approach is to introduce Orbit committees, a mechanism by which a randomly selected medium-sized committee finalizes the chain while preserving the cost properties of the attack. “Orbit takes advantage of pre-existing heterogeneity in the size of validator repositories to achieve as much economic finality as possible, while giving small validators a proportionate role,” he explains.
Buterin also plans to create a two-tier staking system with different deposit requirements, in which only the highest deposit level would be directly involved in the economic purpose. He acknowledges that “risks are highly dependent on the specific rights enjoyed by the lower stake level” and that some designs could lead to centralization.
To address security vulnerabilities related to denial of service (DoS) attacks against known validators, Buterin offers the implementation of Single Secret Leader Election (SSLE) protocols. “The best way to solve the DoS problem is to hide information about which validator is going to produce the next block, at least until the time the block is actually produced,” he says.
SSLE protocols use cryptographic techniques to create “blind” validation credentials, ensuring that only the owner of a blind credential can generate valid proof to propose a block without others knowing their identity. However, Buterin acknowledges the challenges: “We greatly appreciate that Ethereum is a reasonably simple protocol, and we do not want the complexity to increase further. The SSLE implementations we’ve seen add hundreds of lines of specification code and introduce new assumptions into complex cryptography.
He also explored methods to reduce Ethereum’s transaction confirmation time from the current 12 seconds to just 4 seconds, highlighting the value of reducing confirmation times to improve user experience and facilitate decentralized layer solutions. 2. Strategies include reducing slot times and allowing proposers to post pre-confirmations during a slot. However, Buterin warns of the potential risks of centralization and the need for appropriate incentives, noting that “if we add an attester-proposer separation mechanism, then execution blocks will not need SSLE, because we could count on specialized block builders.”
Buterin also addresses other critical areas, including 51% attack recovery. He suggests that while full automation is impossible, “we can achieve partial automation…ensuring that the bad guys in an attack can at least achieve a clean and quick victory.” He also plans to increase the quorum threshold for block finalization from 67% to 80% to strengthen security, arguing that “this seems a much healthier situation than if the ‘bad side’ achieved an instant victory.”
Concluding his blog post, Buterin warns of the importance of preparing for the potential threat of quantum computers capable of breaking current cryptographic systems: “This justifies conservatism in assumptions regarding the performance of proof designs. issue, and also constitutes a reason to be cautious. more proactive in developing quantum-resistant alternatives.
At press time, ETH was trading at $2,524.
Featured image from Bloomberg, chart from TradingView.com
