Vitalik analyzes the strengths, weaknesses, and ways to improve the Ethereum blockchain
Vitalik Buterin gave a talk about the Ethereum blockchain at the EthCC[7] developer conference in Belgium with a hall packed with 1,100 attendees.
Proposal to improve the Ethereum blockchain
In a presentation at the Ethereum Community Conference (EthCC) taking place in Brussels (Belgium), Vitalik Buterin shared details about the strengths and weaknesses of the largest smart contract blockchain and its massive ecosystem. , including concerns about transaction censorship as well as a proposal to increase the "quorum threshold" from 75% to 80%.
- Strengths: Buterin believes that Ethereum is a "large and reasonably decentralized staking ecosystem", and considers it an international and highly intellectual community.
- Some weaknesses that according to Vitalik are "completely solvable" include:
- The 32 ETH staking requirement to become network validators makes it difficult for individual investors;
For individual users, launching a node is quite technically complex.
- Solutions proposed by Vitalik Buterin to improve weaknesses:
- Make the protocol as easy to use as possible;
- Don't try to "cram" too much interaction or backward compatibility into the protocol like Vitalik Buterin "was thinking 'idlely' when he first created Ethereum".
- Wider adoption of Light Clients across Ethereum's entire infrastructure layer, especially including crypto wallets - should support zk-EVM verification, providing additional support for Layer-2 networks .
Fear of a "51% Attack"
In addition, the "father of Ethereum" also expressed concern about a "51% attack" (51% attack or double spend) on the network in the future, calling on everyone to prepare better by Hypothetical moderation situations.
51% Attack is a form of attack carried out on blockchain systems, in which an individual or organization that holds the majority of control over the network can disrupt the network. In the past, names that have been reported to have suffered this type of 51% attack include Ethereum Classic (ETC), Bitcoin SV, Bitcoin Gold, ZenCash (now renamed Horizen), Litecoin Cash, Vertcoin and Verge ( up to 2 times).
Vitalik believes that when a 51% Attack occurs, the reaction of honest validators (honest nodes) will often move to another fork of the blockchain. The current plan relies heavily on social consensus, with community members coming together to agree on a new fork. Therefore, Buterin advocates that automating and planning this response will better protect the network from a 51% Attack.
However, Buterin also admitted that it is impossible to make 100% of the network automatically switch to a new fork because there are many limitations, but "the more automation, the lower the social consensus that needs to be implemented".
It can be seen that many Layer-2 criticisms about security risks forced Ethereum developers to quickly deploy new solutions to ensure secure authentication at higher speeds while still ensure decentralization.
Buterin has appeared regularly at EthCC over the years. Before today's sharing session on the main stage, Vitalik Buterin also had a session on Pre-Confirmations that addressed the benefits of Slot validation, advocating for shortening block validation times on Ethereum. In 2023, he shared about the challenges surrounding Account Abstraction (AA), and a year before that, he spoke about Ethereum ahead of The Merge event.
