On October 14, Vitalik Buterin shared a comprehensive analysis on Warpcast, titled “Possible futures of the Ethereum protocol, part 1: The Merge.” He emphasized the quest for enhancements within the proof of stake technical framework. The discussion centered on three pivotal objectives for Ethereum staking: increasing the number of eligible validators, reducing finalization times, and decreasing the operational costs associated with running nodes.
Buterin articulates that achieving economic finality in Ethereum’s design is crucial, as it aims to decrease block completion time to one time slot, potentially maintaining or shortening the existing interval of 12 seconds. Additionally, he advocates for allowing validators to participate in staking with just 1 ETH, which is a significant reduction from the current requirement of 32 ETH. This initiative is expected to democratize participation in the Ethereum network and enhance its overall efficiency.