Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has warned that Layer-2 networks ought to solely transition to full decentralization when their underlying proof methods are extremely dependable.
In a Could 5 post shared on X (previously Twitter), Buterin emphasised that advancing to “stage 2″ of decentralization have to be accompanied by stable technical safeguards to keep away from introducing pointless dangers.
He mentioned:
“A very good reminder that stage 2 is just not the one factor that issues for safety: the standard of the underlying proof system issues too.”
He defined {that a} community’s decentralization stage ought to align with its proof system’s maturity and dependability. Buterin argued that decentralization could trigger extra hurt than good if the system stays error-prone.
Buterin’s remarks are available response to a suggestion by Daniel Wang, founding father of the Loopring Basis, who proposed a brand new label of “Stage 2-BattleTested” to focus on Layer-2 options which have endured real-world stress situations.
In response to Wang, such a label would sign that the code has undergone rigorous testing and is extra reliable in reside environments. He added:
“A rollup is #BattleTested if its present code and configs have been reside on Ethereum mainnet for over 6 months, and has constantly secured over $100M in TVL – with at the least $50M in ETH and main stablecoin.”
Buterin illustrates why proof system issues
Buterin acknowledged Wang’s place, whereas illustrating a threat mannequin the place every Safety Council member has an unbiased 10% likelihood of failure.
This contains potential questions of safety, reminiscent of signing incorrect information, or liveness points that resulted of their unavailability or unwillingness to signal information.
Buterin acknowledged that this mannequin is imperfect as a consequence of real-world vulnerabilities, reminiscent of collusion or coordinated hacks, also called frequent mode failures.
Contemplating this, he famous that transferring to stage 2 sooner than modeled could generally be the higher selection, particularly as proof system high quality improves.
In the meantime, Buterin additionally proposed utilizing multi-signature (multisig) setups with a number of unbiased methods to cut back the danger of a single level of failure in proof methods.
He argued that the chance of a protocol failure is carefully tied to the energy of its proof mechanism, particularly in superior safety levels.
The Ethereum co-founder warned that deploying a stage 2 mannequin with a weak, stage-0-level proof system might be the worst-case state of affairs.
