Key Points
- Ethereum may adopt multiple validators for block creation to reduce centralization risks.
- Researchers are still debating the best method to decrease the dominance of a single validator.
Ethereum’s founder, Vitalik Buterin, recently supported a proposal to introduce multiple-block proposers in Ethereum (ETH).
This move, agreed upon by Buterin and other researchers, aims to diversify the contributors to block transactions, thus reducing the risk of centralization.
Issues with Current Ethereum Design
In the current setup, a single validator is chosen to create each block in the Ethereum system. This validator has the sole authority to decide which transactions are included in the block.
This design can lead to potential manipulation, as the chosen validator often prioritizes transactions with higher fees and better rewards, leaving those with lower fees behind.
To address these issues, several new block-creation proposals have been put forward.
Proposed Solutions and Debates
There are three main proposals under consideration. The first is Braid, proposed by Ethereum researcher Max Resnick, which suggests running multiple parallel instances of Ethereum to allow for concurrent block creation and validation.
Dan Robinson, a researcher at Paradigm, supports Braid, suggesting it could become a key part of Ethereum’s roadmap. Angsar Dietrichs, however, pointed out several issues with Braid and proposed an alternative: FOCIL (First-Observed-If-Later).
FOCIL aims to prioritize the first block observed by the majority of nodes. Robinson, however, argued that Braid offers additional advantages over FOCIL, such as priority ordering of transactions.
The last proposal is Inclusion Lists, aimed at ensuring certain transactions are included in the block. These proposals are categorized as Inclusion Lists, Deterministic Ordering, and Leaderless.
The debate continues, with researchers still unsure about how best to reduce the power of the ‘last mover’ or single validator. Despite these ongoing discussions, the price of ETH remains steady, even amidst recent market caution.
