Vitalik Buterin ponders Ethereum’s post-merger future

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin took to social media to share his thoughts on the state of the protocol and its potential evolution after the 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

In 2022, Ethereum's integration protocol marked the transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake (PoS). Buterin called the event “hard-earned” and “long-awaited,” but pointed out that there are still important areas where PoS needs improvement.

According to Buterin, one of the main goals of Ethereum's future is to reduce the time it takes to complete a transaction.

Currently, it can take up to 15 minutes, a delay that can be frustrating as Ethereum is the most heavily trafficked blockchain network. The delay may lead to congestion.

Buterin suggested exploring solutions such as single-slot finality, which could significantly reduce transaction time. This makes Ethereum more competitive and improves the overall user experience. It previously offered a single-entry final selection in July.

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. 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 attacks by implementing a secret technique called a secret leader election, which makes it difficult for attackers to disrupt the network.

Buterin also suggested exploring ways to improve the protocol's resilience to quantum computing threats, which could pose a major challenge in the future, and increasing the quorum threshold and recovery from 51% attacks.

Buterin's post comes as Ethereum looks forward to the next phase in its development roadmap – the Prague-Electra (Pectra) update, scheduled to go live in the first quarter of 2025.

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