Vitalik Buterin Wants to Change the Proof-of-Stake Mechanism

Vitalik Buterin wants to change the Proof-of-Stake mechanism

In an article on the Ethereum developer forum, ETH founder Vitalik Buterin proposed solutions to solve the current problems of the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism.

Buterin wrote:

“A suggestion for streamlining PoS: design an architecture that only requires 8192 signatures per slot, making the consensus process simpler and less data intensive.”

A PoS simplification proposal: make a design that only requires 8192 signatures per slot (even with SSF), making the consensus implementation considerably simpler and lighter.https://t.co/Z8mK7vZx7g

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) December 27, 2023

The problem that the Ethereum founder wants to raise is that validators participating in the Proof-of-Stake network have to sign and approve transactions many times. As the network adds more validators, the number of signatures increases exponentially, increasing the amount of data that must be processed.

Therefore, Vitalik Buterin has proposed three options for Ethereum to mitigate this problem by reducing the number of signatures required for each transaction slot (block).

The first solution is to encourage the development of decentralized staking pools, increasing the limit of ETH needed to be staked to become a validator from 32 ETH to 4,096 ETH, thereby creating cooperation between network participants to become a validator.

The second approach is to divide staking validators into two groups, with differences in workload. The first group has a minimum staking requirement of 4,096 ETH and participates in transaction confirmations, while the second group has no minimum staking requirement and only increases network security.

Related: Vitalik Buterin’s privacy pool proposal is interesting, but it’s just the start

The third processing method is to rotate validators, randomly selecting a group of validators to process transactions for each slot.

Vitalik Buterin said each option poses unique trade-offs, sacrificing Ethereum’s centralization for the ability to maintain the network over the long term.

In recent times, the founder of Ethereum has also given his personal opinion on emerging issues in the Ethereum community, including how to classify zkEVM, the emergence of layer-2, and the issue of decentralization in liquid staking protocol and SocialFi social networks.