Ethereum Vitalik Buterin, founder of , has always sought solutions to make the network more decentralized. A new study by Toni Wahrstätter expands on Buterin’s ideas for changing how Ethereum rewards validators for supporting this goal. This study focuses on a topic called “anti-correlation penalties”. focuses.
Currently, large groups that manage many Ethereum validators are able to save costs. This tends to pull the network towards a few big players. However, if many validators controlled by the same operator fail at the same time, this is likely to pose a risk to the entire network. This is where the new idea comes into play. If validators operated by the same operator frequently fail together, then a penalty could be imposed to encourage more diverse and independent validators.
In summary, if ETH validators miss confirming more transactions than usual, they may receive a penalty. This approach will help preserve the decentralized nature of Ethereum and reduce excessive control of the network by large validators. Wahrstätter’s analysis focuses on approximately 9.3 billion validator activities spanning a 40-day period. The research aims to examine what can change by applying the formula suggested by Vitalik to these data.
Organizations that manage staking operators will feel the impact of penalties under the new system in different ways depending on their size. While larger operators may face higher fines, smaller operators are likely to benefit. This fits with the idea that penalties would deter large-scale centralization. Interestingly, a category of unidentified validators also emerged. Presumably these solo stakers indicate the diversity of the network. Different software clients used by validators were also taken into account in the analysis. The idea was that validators using the same software could face higher penalties if they failed together. The findings suggested that small changes made for different clients increased the reliability of the software.
