• Vitalik Buterin: Re-staking could result in high systemic risks for the ecosystem
• Buterin warns against overloading the consensus process
• Minimalism of the chain should be maintained
re-staking
Since the merger, the Ethereum blockchain has been a role model for the proof-of-stake process. A success story from which other networks also want to benefit. The heart of a blockchain is its consensus process, i.e. the regular agreement of several participants about a certain network status, as BTC-ECHO explains. However, the development of such a decentralized security network is both time-consuming and costly. Smaller projects want to save resources here, for example by attaching themselves to the Ethereum validator set. But what impact could that have? Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin explains that conflicts of interest could arise during re-staking, which could jeopardize the actual function of the validators, namely the protection of exactly one blockchain.
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Vitalik Buterin: Warning about overloading the Ethereum consensus process
On May 21, Buterin published a blog post titled “Don’t overload Ethereum’s consensus”. In this article, Buterin warns that using the Ethereum network consensus for other things “could pose high systemic risks to the ecosystem and should be discouraged.”
Don’t overload Ethereum’s consensus:https://t.co/07tzyCrZcJ
– vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) May 21, 2023
The consensus of the Ethereum network is that Buterin is one of the most secured cryptoeconomic systems around. Ethereum 18 million worth of validators are scheduled to complete a block every 6.4 minutes, using many different implementations of the protocol for redundancy.
However, over time, a number of ideas emerged to use the Ethereum validator set, and perhaps even the Ethereum social consensus, for other purposes as well. However, according to the founder of Ethereum, some of these usage proposals would entail high systemic risks for the ecosystem and should therefore be rejected and combated. While these suggestions are usually made with good intentions, Buterin explains: “Dual use of validated ETH, while associated with some risks, is basically fine with trying to “recruit” the social consensus of Ethereum for one’s own ends.” “, but not.” Overall, Buterin posits that any expansion of the Ethereum consensus “duties” would increase the cost, complexity, and risks of running a validator.
“Preserve the minimalism of the chain”
Instead, Buterin calls for maintaining the minimalism of the chain. The social consensus of blockchain communities is a sensitive thing, and while there is a natural urge to expand the blockchain core with more and more features, since the blockchain core has the most economic weight and the largest community pays attention to it, everyone does such extension the core itself more vulnerable. “We should instead preserve the minimalism of the chain, support re-staking applications that don’t look like a slippery slope to expanding the role of the Ethereum consensus, and help developers find alternative strategies to achieve their security goals.” Buterin ultimately.
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