Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently outlined ways to improve the blockchain’s proof-of-stake (PoS) system despite its existing strengths in decentralization and stability.
In an October 14 post, Buterin discussed potential upgrades that could improve transaction speeds, strengthen security, and make staking more accessible to solo participants.
Improve Ethereum performance
One of Buterin’s main goals is to reduce Ethereum’s transaction times. Currently, transactions can take up to 15 minutes to complete, which could cause network congestion and delays. Buterin aims to reduce this to just a few seconds.
He noted:
“Ethereum’s transaction confirmation time still has value, going from 12 seconds to, say, 4 seconds. Doing this would significantly improve the user experience of both L1 and based stacks, while also making defi protocols more efficient.
To achieve this, Buterin suggested exploring a “single-slot finality” method, which could significantly reduce transaction times by finalizing blocks in a single location. This approach would make Ethereum more competitive and significantly improve the user experience.
Buterin also proposed strategies to accelerate these improvements, including using ZK-SNARK for better signature aggregation. This could allow Ethereum to process the signatures of millions of validators per location.
Additionally, he introduced the idea of ”orbit committees”, which involve the random selection of a medium-sized group tasked with finalizing the blocks while maintaining security.
Democratizing staking
Staking accessibility is another key concern. Currently, users need at least 32 ETH (approximately $81,500) to participate in staking, which limits solo participation. Buterin suggested lowering the threshold to just 1 ETH to encourage more individual users to stake.
Buterin said:
“Poll after survey repeatedly shows that the main factor preventing more people from betting solo is the 32 ETH minimum. Reducing the minimum to 1 ETH would solve this problem.
By lowering the minimum, Buterin believes other concerns would take precedence over limiting solo staking, potentially opening the door for more users to contribute to the network.
Strengthening Ethereum Security
Buterin also highlighted the need to strengthen Ethereum security. One proposed solution is to use “secret single leader election,” a cryptographic technique that would make it more difficult for attackers to disrupt the network.
Currently, validators proposing the next block are identified in advance, creating a security risk. Attackers could target specific validators with denial of service (DoS) attacks just as they are about to offer a block.
The election of the single secret leader would obscure the identity of the validator using cryptographic methods, preventing attackers from knowing until the last moment who will propose the next block.
Other key improvements
Buterin suggested increasing the quorum threshold from 67% to 80%, thereby improving the security of Ethereum.
With this change, a quorum-blocking minority of solo participants would only need 21%. This would strengthen the network’s resistance to attacks, especially in scenarios where a 51% attack or censorship could be attempted.
He also highlighted the need to prepare for quantum computing threats, which could undermine the network in the future, and the ability to recover from 51% of attacks.
