Ethereum (ETH) founder Vitalik Buterin explained why the network couldn’t be faster.
Vitalik Buterin thinks that the Ethereum network cannot get any faster than it is now. Buterin said reducing block time means compromising elements like “security and decentralization.”
Buterin’s comment came in response to a question he received on Reddit.
As with most blockchain-related problems, optimizing one variable (like speed) will likely be at the expense of another (like network security).
According to Buterin, the “fundamental problem” with Proof-of-Work is the built-in randomness of block time. Ethereum’s average block time may be 13 seconds, but that doesn’t mean a block is written to the point every 13 seconds. Buterin explains that a new block has a chance to be approved just one second after the last one is approved. When this happens, the miner with the better network connectivity is more likely to propagate the next block first. Reducing block times makes this problem worse.
Reducing block times will result in many signatures being excluded from the blockchain, and “highly centralized actors” will be in an increasingly favorable position to reap disproportionate rewards.
Therefore, Buterin concludes that future upgrades will not significantly reduce “pro-slot time” and applications that require rapid approval will need to rely on channels or aggregations.
There was also a discussion on the subject on Twitter. Emin Gün Sirer, founder of Ava Labs, which developed Avalanche, tweeted to Buterin and criticized him.
Stop being dishonest.
"Consensus is not the bottleneck" refers to bandwidth.
The above tweet was about latency.
And if you actually engaged with the arguments instead of using mixed-case to insinuate the claim is ridiculous without saying why, this would be clear to you.
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) February 7, 2022
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