Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has highlighted staking centralization as one of the most significant risks to the Ethereum blockchain in a recent blog post outlining approaches to address these concerns as part of the upcoming “Scourge” upgrade.
Building on his previous discussions about Ethereum’s “Merge” and “Surge” upgrades, where he set ambitious goals for achieving 100,000 transactions per second across Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks, Buterin’s latest post focuses on mitigating centralization risks associated with Ethereum’s proof-of-stake model.
According to Buterin, centralization risks in block construction and staking capital provision are two key challenges that Ethereum faces. He emphasized the issue of maximal extractable value (MEV), noting that two actors currently control the contents of approximately 88% of Ethereum blocks, posing risks of censorship that could delay crucial transactions.
Buterin proposed several solutions, including the use of an encrypted mempool to reduce censorship risks and the introduction of inclusion lists, where stakers propose transaction lists that must be included in blocks. He also suggested implementing multiple concurrent proposers to diversify block production.
Acknowledging the tradeoffs between decentralization and MEV extraction, Buterin advised a cautious, step-by-step approach to increase stakers’ authority over time as more is learned about the MEV market.
This outline is part of Buterin’s broader vision for enhancing Ethereum’s scalability, security, and decentralization as the blockchain continues to evolve.