Vitalik Buterin ponders Ethereum’s post-merger future

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin has taken to social media to share his thoughts on the state of the protocol and its evolution after the highly anticipated “merger.”

In a detailed blog post on October 14, Buterin highlighted several key areas where Ethereum will see significant improvements, including faster transaction speeds, improved security, and greater accessibility for individual stakeholders.

Post integration ideas

Ethereum's “unification” marked the transition of the protocol from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake. Buterin called the event “hard-earned” and “long-awaited,” but pointed out that there are still areas where significant improvements need to be made.

According to Buterin, one of the primary goals for the future of Ethereum is to reduce the time it takes to complete a transaction.

Currently it can take around 15 minutes, this delay can be frustrating for users, Ethereum is the most heavily trafficked blockchain network. This delay can cause congestion.

Buterin suggested exploring solutions such as single-slot finality, which could significantly reduce transaction time. This will make Ethereum more competitive with other blockchain platforms and improve the overall user experience.

Earlier in July, he proposed the single-entry final.

Buterin also discussed making Ethereum accessible to more users. The current 32 Ether (ETH) stake requirement may be a barrier for many individuals who wish to participate in the network. To address this, Buterin proposed lowering the minimum stake to 1 ETH, allowing more people to contribute to Ethereum's security and governance.

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This also helps to make Ethereum more decentralized, reducing the risk of one party taking too much control.

Network security

Buterin emphasized the importance of protecting Ethereum from potential attacks. He discussed implementing a cryptographic technique called single-secret leader selection, which would make it harder for attackers to disrupt the network.

Buterin also suggested speeding up transaction confirmation times, finding ways to improve the protocol's quantum computing vulnerability—a potential future challenge—and increasing the quorum threshold and recovery from 51% attacks.

Buterin's comments on how to upgrade the network come as Ethereum looks forward to the next phase in its development roadmap – the Prague-Electra (Pectra) upgrade, which is scheduled to go live in the first quarter of 2025.

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