(24) At the Home Staking Summit in Singapore, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin discussed the importance of independent stakers (including small businesses and community stakers) to the Ethereum network and possible reforms to Layer 1 to support these stakers in a fireside chat.
Vitalik pointed out that independent stakers constitute the "first line of defense" of the Ethereum network, giving the network the ability to resist censorship, and are also the "last line of defense" by preventing erroneous soft fork chains from reaching the 67% final confirmation threshold and maintaining network security. 67% is a key indicator for ensuring the security of the Ethereum network.
Since these stakers are usually not affiliated with large institutions, they are less likely to be targeted or oppressed by regulators, which further strengthens Ethereum's position as a decentralized, reliable and neutral blockchain. In this environment, although some organizations or institutions may try to censor transactions on Ethereum, the existence of independent stakers means that transactions may only be delayed rather than completely censored.
Propose to raise the final confirmation threshold to enhance security
Vitalik proposed to consider increasing the validator ratio from 67% to 85% to further enhance the security of the network. However, doing so may lead to new challenges, such as reducing the cost of defending against final confirmation attacks. For example, reducing the cost of attack from more than 33% of staked ETH to just over 15%, because some indirect attack methods (such as bribing core developers or node operators) may make the attack cost lower.
33% of the staked ETH is a critical point for an attacker. If the attacker controls more than this percentage of ETH, they can prevent the final confirmation of the beacon chain without complex manipulation of other validators.
Vitalik suggests: reallocate resources
Vitalik proposed that the existing 33% staked ETH represents the highest attack cost to prevent the network from being controlled, and he believes that too many resources may be invested in defending against attacks exceeding 33%. He used the following metaphor to illustrate:
If we compare the Ethereum network to a house with 10cm thick bulletproof glass windows but a flimsy door, then we should reallocate resources to strengthening the weakest part.
Therefore, he advocates reallocating resources to strengthen defenses against “66%+” attacks and increasing the number of independent stakers to make them a critical part of the existing final confirmation threshold.
Vitalik ultimately emphasized that the number of independent stakers should be increased, playing a key role in the current final confirmation threshold, and explored how the Ethereum base layer (L1) can more effectively support and incentivize these stakers.
