In a recent blogย post, Vitalik Buterin warned against overloading the networkโs consensus.ย Althoughย while Ethereumโs consensus is highly secure, Buterin said overloading it would expose the ecologicalย system to high systemic dangers.
Buterinโs post comesย after substantial congestion on the Bitcoinย (BTC) network, which led to a surge in transaction fees.
Possible Risks of Consensus Overload
Cryptocurrency assets like Bitcoinย (BTC) and Ethereumย (ETH) use the consensus mechanism to validate transaction authenticity and maintain the security of the underlying blockchain.
This consensus mechanism influences how a blockchainย tech network verifies transactions while determining network charges, transaction speed, and more.
Amid surging transaction fees on the Bitcoinย (BTC) network owingย to congestion, Buterin requested users not to overload Ethereumย (ETH) validators to preserve the consensus mechanism.
In his blog post, the co- founder warned against theย dangers of overworking Ethereumโs consensus. He stated some proposals suggested using Ethereumย (ETH) consensus for other objectives, such as price oracles and re-staking. And some even suggested using layer-1 forks to recover layer-2 projects in the event of unexpected occurrences.
Althoughย while the urge to enhanceย the blockchainโs core functionality is high, Buterin stated such an extension would render it fragile. He notedย that a certain subset of these techniques brings high systemic dangers to the ecologicalย system and should be resisted and discouraged.
If validators get overloaded, the ecologicalย system could face such dangers as bugs or 51 percent intentional attacks initiated by actors who advocate for a fork toย guard their deposits.ย These dangers include creating ETH/USD price oracles where Ethereumย (ETH) holders or validators could receive bribes to vote.
Reportsย by Buterin, a case scenario where participants receive money to offer the wrong answer would cause honest people to lose money.ย In that case, Ethereumย (ETH) can only fork to recover usersโ funds, which is a high risk.
Nonetheless, while Buterin disagrees with price oracles, he acknowledged the need for better Oracles amid high bug dangers. Buterin believes numerous complications are inherently different and should have unique approaches.ย
Buterin Advices Against Extending Ethereumย (ETH) Consensus Functionality
Inย general, Buterinโs post kicks against theย growth of Ethereumย (ETH) consensus functionality as that would cause increased costs, complexities, and dangers in running a validator.
Additionally, he advises the community to be cautious of application-layer projects that may increase the scope of blockchainย tech consensus outside core Ethereumย (ETH) protocol rules.
He urged the Ethereumย (ETH) community to preserve the blockchainโs minimalism and support re-staking without slippery slopes that could extend the roles of Ethereumย (ETH) consensus.ย The founder requested users toย assist developers find alternative strategies to accomplish their security goals.
After transitioning from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake consensus aย yearย ago, Ethereumย (ETH) recently witnessed the Shapella upgrade on April 12.ย
The upgrade commissioned a phased release of staked Ether, increasing activities and transactions on the network.ย That describes the increased concern for security and validator dangers on the network.
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