Regardless of the Ethereum Merge being touted as a serious improve to the blockchain community, its transition to proof-of-stake theoretically makes it extra weak to use.
Chatting with Cointelegraph, the safety researcher defined that in contrast to proof-of-work (PoW) methods, a proof-of-stake (PoS) system informs node validators prematurely what blocks they may validate, thus enabling them to plan assaults.
The safety skilled, who requested to not be named, is a blockchain developer and safety researcher engaged on a proof-of-stake layer-2 blockchain.
The researcher defined that an exploit may theoretically happen on the post-Merge Ethereum blockchain if validators handle to line up two consecutive blocks to validate.
“If you happen to management two consecutive blocks, you can begin an exploit on block N and end it on block N+1 with out having any arbitrage bot coming in and fixing the value that you’ve got manipulated in between.”
“From an financial safety standpoint, [this vulnerability] makes these assaults comparatively simpler to drag off.”
The skilled stated that whereas it’s additionally potential for miners to validate consecutive blocks in PoW networks — that comes right down to “pure luck” and offers the miner no time to plan an assault.
Because of this, the safety researcher argues that Ethereum will probably be forgoing some power in safety when the Merge takes impact:
“As we stand proper now [with] the Ethereum proof-of-work versus Ethereum proof-of-stake, Ethereum proof-of-work does have stronger safety […] and financial ensures.”
“However that being stated […] proof-of-stake [still] has adequate sensible safety [and] it does not actually matter that it is theoretically not as safe as proof-of-work. It is nonetheless a really safe system,” he added.
Associated: Buterin and Armstrong mirror on proof-of-stake shift as Ethereum Merge nears
The safety skilled added that “Ethereum is engaged on fixing [the consecutive block issue].
It’s a onerous drawback to resolve, but when that will get finished, then proof-of-stake safety will [further] enhance [as] they’ll have safety in opposition to these assault vectors.”
Ethereum validators are topic to slashing in PoS, because the consensus guidelines had been designed to economically incentivize validators to accurately validate incoming transactions and any conduct on the contrary would see their ETH stake slashed.
The Ethereum Merge is lastly set to happen on Sept. 15 at about 2:30am UTC, in accordance to Blocknative’s Ethereum Merge Countdown. The transition to PoS is ready to make the Ethereum community extra scalable and energy-efficient.
