Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has proposed adding distributed validator technology (DVT) to the blockchain's staking mechanism, arguing that this might simplify the method and the technology behind it.
Buterin proposed “native DVT” in a post on the Ethereum Research forum on Wednesday, which might allow Ether (ETH) stakers to “stake without having to rely entirely on a single node.”
Currently, Ethereum validators can only run one node to secure the blockchain, which can lead to penalties if it fails.
Using DVT would mean that a validator could use their key across multiple nodes to support the network, reducing the likelihood of penalties.
“The key’s secretly shared amongst multiple nodes, and all signatures are supplied with threshold signatures,” he explained, adding that the right functioning of the node is guaranteed so long as greater than two out of three of them are “honest.”
Vitalik Buterin is bringing attention to distributed validation technology at an event in 2024. Source: University of Waterloo
Buterin said several protocols use DVT, which he said “doesn't bring about full consensus inside each validator, so that they provide barely worse guarantees, but they’re quite a bit simpler.”
TVT must be implemented within the protocol: Buterin
Buterin said that while DVT solutions require complicated setups, he suggested a “surprisingly easy alternative: we anchor DVT into the protocol.”
Buterin's design called for a validator to create a maximum of 16 keys, or “virtual identities,” which act independently but are viewed by the blockchain as a single entity.
This so-called “group identity,” Buterin said, will only be treated as an motion like making a block if a minimum variety of the “virtual identities” have agreed to it and will likely be rewarded or punished depending on the actions of the bulk.
“This design is amazingly easy from a user’s perspective,” he said, because DVT staking becomes running copies of a regular client node.
Buterin added that it might also help security-conscious stakers with large amounts of ETH to take part in a safer setup as an alternative of counting on a single node. Stakers could more easily stake their very own tokens as an alternative of using a provider, increasing the decentralization of the stake.
Buterin's proposal comes at a time when the co-founder has recommend other ideas to make Ethereum easier to make use of, and his latest proposal requires further debate before it will probably be added to the network.
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