 Vitalik Buterin ponders Ethereum’s future post-Merge 
2024-10-14

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin took to social media to share his reflections on the state of the protocol and its potential evolution after the highly anticipated “Merge.“
In a detailed blog post on Oct. 14, Buterin highlighted several key areas where Ethereum could see significant advancements, including faster transaction speeds, improved security and greater accessibility for solo stakers.
Post-Merge thoughts
The Ethereum “Merge” marked the protocol’s transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake. Buterin called the event both “hard-earned” and “long-awaited” but noted there are still important areas where proof-of-stake needs improvement.
According to Buterin, one of the primary goals for Ethereum’s future is to reduce the time it takes to finalize a transaction. 
Currently, finality can take around 15 minutes, a delay that can be frustrating for users given that Ethereum is the most heavily trafficked blockchain network. This lag time can contribute to congestion.
Buterin suggested exploring solutions like single-slot finality, which could drastically reduce transaction time. This would make Ethereum more competitive with other blockchain platforms and improve its overall user experience. 
He previously proposed the idea of single-slot finality in July. 
Buterin also discussed making Ethereum more accessible to a broader range of users. The current staking requirement of 32 Ether ETHUSD can be a barrier for many individuals looking to participate in the network. To address this, Buterin proposed lowering the minimum staking amount to 1 ETH, which would enable more people to contribute to Ethereum’s security and governance.
This would also help to further decentralize Ethereum, reducing the risk of a single entity gaining too much control.
Keeping the network secure
Buterin stressed the importance of protecting Ethereum from potential attacks. He discussed implementing a cryptographic technique called single secret leader election, which would make it harder for attackers to disrupt the network.
Additionally, Buterin suggested speeding up transaction confirmation timing, exploring ways to improve the protocol’s resistance to quantum computing threats — which could pose a significant challenge in the future — and increasing the quorum threshold and recovery from 51% attacks. 
Buterin’s expanded thoughts on how to improve the network come as Ethereum anticipates the next milestone on its development roadmap — the Prague-Electra (Pectra) upgrade, which is scheduled to go live in the first quarter of 2025. 
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