The Debut of ETH Taipei|Vitalik Temple Hat! Discussing the Centralization Risks of Current “PoS Staking”
“ETH Taipei,” organized by the Ethereum Taipei community, kicked off at the Nangang Bottle Cap Factory in Taipei on March 21st. Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, made an appearance wearing a specially made Taiwanese-style “temple hat” and “temple committee costume” provided by the organizers. He discussed the two major centralization risks in the current Ethereum ecosystem: MEV (Miner Extractable Value) and PoS (Proof of Stake) staking.
The PoS staking ecosystem has room for improvement, and rainbow staking could be one of the solutions. MEV poses centralized risks for relays and builders. Trusted intermediaries, such as MEVBoost, are also included in this risk.
Regarding PoS staking, Vitalik mentioned the centralized risks associated with reviewing MEV relays and builders. He also discussed how if specific staked-ETH becomes the primary asset, it could generate centralization risks.
Vitalik pointed out that the number of individual stakers (with 32 ETH) is decreasing. Originally, this design aimed to avoid having too many signatures on the chain while also avoiding excessively high ETH requirements. However, it seems that currently, both goals cannot be achieved simultaneously.
More research and consideration are needed to find a sustainable staking design. The short-term issue is whether it is possible to change the reward mechanism to limit excessive staking. The long-term issue is how to encourage “lazy ETH holders” to participate in staking again.
Vitalik stated, “We already heavily rely on ‘social pressure + virtue.’ To what extent is this inevitable? If it is inevitable, we should be clearer about whether we rely on incentives or social pressure + virtue, rather than overly relying on the latter.”
He also mentioned the design of “rainbow staking,” which could result in two types of staking. Both types may have the responsibility to produce blocks, but one type would sign every slot and may be subject to punishment (slashable), while the other type would only occasionally sign and would not be punished.
Forum agenda:
https://ethtaipei.org/agenda#info
Registration link:
https://app.moongate.id/e/eth-taipei
Related reading:
Highlights of ETH Taipei: Restaking trend, Vitalik’s presence in person
Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin visits Taiwan! ETH Taipei 2024 invites global developers to explore the latest Ethereum technology.
