Vitalik Buterin shares insight into proof-of-stake updates

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has shared his thoughts on the future of the blockchain, highlighting key improvements aimed at making the network faster, more secure and accessible to more users.

He said that while the 2022 transition from Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (PoS) has been very successful, some areas of the network still needed improvement.

Faster transactions and more access

In an October blog post, he outlined several key developments, including the purpose of the blog, the accessibility of staking, and the security of the network.

Currently, it can take up to 15 minutes for a transaction to be confirmed, causing network congestion. To address this, Buterin proposed exploring the purpose of a single slot, which has the potential to complete blocks in just 12 seconds.

Initially mentioned by him in July 2024, this solution would enable transactions to be completed almost immediately, improving user experience and network security in one fell swoop.

The co-founder of Ethereum also emphasized the need to make the participation process more accessible. At the moment, users have to stake 32 ETH to participate as validators. With the cryptocurrency currently trading at $2,600, that translates into an outlay of over $83,000. This relatively high cost has created a barrier to entry for smaller players.

Buterin proposed lowering the minimum bet amount to 1 ETH, arguing that it would encourage more solo participants to participate, ensuring that control does not rest with a few large entities. For this, he outlined several possible solutions. The brute force approach would involve advanced cryptographic techniques such as zk-SNARK to efficiently aggregate signatures of millions of validators.

Another proposal is the introduction of Orbit Committees, which would randomly select smaller groups of validators to finalize transactions. This would reduce the workload while maintaining the economic purpose.

Two-tier betting introduces two types of bettors: higher-level bettors who directly influence the finish, and lower-level bettors who can delegate their bets or play a less active role.

Security improvements

The Ethereum co-founder also emphasized the need for continuous security improvements. He recommended implementing a unique secret leader election technique, which would make it difficult for bad actors to target the network with a denial of service (DoS) attack.

In the current system, participants know who is responsible for proposing the next block, making it possible for malicious actors to target them. Buterin’s proposal counters this risk by keeping the block proposer’s identity secret until the block is produced.

SPECIAL OFFER (Sponsored) Binance Free $600 (Exclusive to CryptoPotato): Use this link to register a new account and receive an exclusive welcome offer of $600 to Binance (full details).

2024 LIMITED OFFER on BYDFi Exchange – Up to $2888 Welcome Reward, Use this link to register and open a 100 USDT-M position for free!