ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently outlined ways to improve blockchain's proof-of-stake (PoS) system despite its existing strengths in decentralization and stability.
in a eth.limo/general/2024/10/14/futures1.html”>mail On October 14, Buterin discussed possible updates that could improve transaction speed, increase security, and make betting more accessible to individual participants.
Improving ethereum performance
One of Buterin's main goals is to reduce ethereum 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:
“There is value in ethereum transaction confirmation time decreasing further, from 12 seconds to, say, 4 seconds. Doing this would significantly improve the user experience of both L1 and rollup-based rollups, while also making defi protocols more efficient.”
To achieve this, Buterin suggested exploring a “single slot finalization” method, which could dramatically reduce transaction times by finalizing blocks within a slot. This approach would make ethereum more competitive and significantly improve the user experience.
Buterin also proposed strategies to accelerate these improvements, including the use of ZK-SNARK for better signature aggregation. This could allow ethereum to process signatures from millions of validators per slot.
Additionally, he introduced the idea of “orbital committees,” which involve the random selection of a medium-sized group responsible for finalizing blocks while maintaining security.
democratize the bet
Betting accessibility is another key concern. Currently, users need at least 32 eth (around $81,500) to participate in staking, limiting individual participation. Buterin suggested lowering the threshold to just 1 eth to encourage more individual users to stake.
Buterin said:
“Survey after survey repeatedly shows that the main factor preventing more people from staking 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 priority when limiting individual bets, which could open the door for more users to contribute to the network.
Strengthening the security of ethereum
Buterin also emphasized the need to improve the security of ethereum. One proposed solution is to use a “single leader secret election,” a cryptographic technique that would make it harder 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 propose a block.
Choosing the single secret leader would obfuscate the identity of the validator using cryptographic methods, preventing attackers from knowing who will propose the next block until the last moment.
Other key improvements
Buterin suggested increasing the quorum threshold from 67% to 80%, improving the security of ethereum.
With this change, a minority of individual bettors blocking the quorum would only need 21%. This would strengthen the network's resistance to attacks, particularly in scenarios where a 51% attack or censorship could be attempted.
He also highlighted the need to prepare for quantum computing threats, which could challenge the network in the future, and the ability to recover from 51% of attacks.
