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On the 24th, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin recently discussed the value of independent stakers (including small businesses and community stakers) to the Ethereum network and the possible implementation of the L1 layer in a fireside chat at the Home Staking Summit in Singapore. changes to support these stakers.
Vitalik said that independent stakers are the "first line of defense" of the Ethereum network, providing censorship resistance, and are also the "last line of defense" by preventing erroneous soft forks from reaching the 67% final confirmation threshold. Network, 67% is an important threshold indicator for Ethereum network security.
Because these stakers are typically not associated with large organizations, they are difficult to target or coerce by regulation, which further strengthens Ethereum’s position as a decentralized, trustworthy and neutral blockchain. In this context, some organizations or institutions may try to implement transaction review on Ethereum, but in the end they may only delay transaction processing without achieving comprehensive review because of the existence of independent stakers.
Increase security by raising final confirmation threshold
Vitalik proposed considering increasing the proportion of required validators from 67% to 85% to further enhance the security of the network. However, this may bring new challenges, such as reducing the cost of preventing final confirmation attacks. For example, reducing the current attack cost from over 33% of staked ETH to just over 15%, as certain backdoor attack methods (such as bribing core developers or node operators) may make this attack even less costly .
33% of staked ETH is a key point for attackers. If an attacker controls more than this percentage of ETH, they can prevent the beacon chain from being finalized without the need for elaborate manipulation of other validators.
Extended reading: Detailed analysis of the risks and rewards of the Ethereum staking economy and dynamic adjustment of the model
Vitalik Recommendation: Reallocate resources
Vitalik proposed that the existing 33% of pledged ETH represents the highest attack cost to prevent the network from being hijacked. He believes that too many resources may be invested in defending against attacks exceeding 33%. He said:
If we imagine the Ethereum network to be like a house with 10cm thick bulletproof glass windows but flimsy doors, then resources should be reallocated to strengthen the weakest links.
Therefore, he believes that current resources should be reallocated to strengthen the defense against attacks "more than 66%" and further increase the number of independent stakers, making it a key component of the current final confirmation threshold.
Vitalik concluded by stressing that the number of independent stakers should be increased as a critical part of the current final confirmation threshold, and explored how the Ethereum base layer (L1) can better support and encourage these stakers.
