Vitalik Buterin proposes Ethereum PoS Improvements, aiming for single-slot finality, lower staking thresholds, and enhanced security.
Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, recently published a proposal to improve the Ethereum network’s Proof-of-Stake (PoS) mechanism. His article highlighted two primary objectives: achieving single-slot finality and democratizing staking by reducing the minimum required stake from 32 ETH to 1 ETH.
Currently, Ethereum takes around 15 minutes to finalize a block. This delay exists because staking needs 32 ETH, unavailable to small-scale validators. These parameters were chosen to ensure moderate participation of the validators, moderate finality speed, and reasonable costs of operating the nodes. But Vitalik also noted that these goals are mutually exclusive in the attempt to provide economic finality. In order to make it difficult for an attacker to perform a reversal of a finalized block, a large amount of ETH is required at times, leading to a slower process.
One of the proposal’s most important aims is single-slot finality. This would mean blocks are confirmed in just one slot, reducing the 15-minute wait. It would improve Ethereum, making it faster and more efficient to use. The second goal is to lower the staking threshold to 1 ETH so that more people can become involved. Reducing this limit would increase the number of individuals contributing to the network’s security, thereby increasing decentralization.
Vitalik Proposes Zero-Knowledge-SNARKs for Ethereum PoS
Vitalik offered several possible solutions to these problems. One is enhancing the signature aggregation protocol, possibly by adopting the Zero-Knowledge-SNARKs (ZK-SNARKs). This could enable Ethereum to handle thousands of signatures from millions of validators in each slot while minimizing overhead. The second measure is the possibility of implementing the “Orbit Committee” system. This committee would be a medium-sized, randomly chosen set of validators for finalizing blocks. It would decrease the number of validators required for every block while keeping Ethereum secure.
In addition, Vitalik proposed a two-tier staking system. This would create two groups of stalkers: one with higher deposit requirements and one with lower. The higher-tier stakes would finalize blocks, while the lower-tier stakes could delegate their stake or assist in the finalization process. The higher-tier stakes would complete blocks, while the lower-tier stakes could delegate their stake or help complete the block. This would help secure Ethereum and extend the user base.
Ultimately, these changes optimize Ethereum’s PoS system and bring it within people’s reach. Single slot finality would increase the rate of block confirmation, and reducing the staking threshold would increase participation. Overall, these improvements aim to increase Ethereum’s scalability, security, and competitiveness.
