The Ethereum Blockchain is at risk if decentralization is just a catchphrase, says Baterin
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Baterin wants the crypto industry to grow rapidly-emphasized that the industry is in a “point of inflection.”
Speaking in front of a packed room At the Ethereum Community Conference, in Cannes, France, Blerin used his keynote to deliver a clear check of fact: decentralization, he argued, must have evolved from a catchphrase to a concrete set of user guarantees-or risk to become another hollow promise.
While the industry has become major in endorsements from major corporations and political numbers, builders need to return to the key ideals of the ecosystem surrounding decentralization and buildings for the needs of users, Baterin said.
With his typical jeans and relaxing dark t-shirt uniforms, Blerin laid out practical “trials” that he said that every crypto project should be passed. This includes 1) the walking test. If the company behind an application is missing, do users maintain their possessions? And 2) The Insider attack test: How much damage can rogue insider or compromise front-ends cause? And 3) If it has a trusted computing base: How many lines of code should be trusted to protect users’ funds or data?
He warned that there were so many Layer-2 networks, Defi projects and “decentralized” front-ends relying on hidden rear, instant upgrades or insecure interfaces that could be stuck and hacked.
Even identity and privacy solutions are under his critical eye. The proof that zero-knowledge, he said, could backfire if users would still reveal their entire transaction history when they signed in to centralized providers. Privacy, he added, should be flipped from treatment as an optional feature on something that reduces data leakage default.
It’s going to be 10 years this month since the Ethereum Blockchain lived, and Baterin was subjected to pressure Over the past few months from the community to address basic protocol issues. If not, the blockchain may lose its edge in competitors.
For the bakerin, this next stage in Ethereum history means that building systems that pass the walk-away test, shrinkage the trusted code base and prevent insider attacks. This includes balancing engineering with simple, stable solutions.
“If we lose that,” he concludes, “Ethereum will inevitably become a generational thing, and inevitably pass like many other things passed.”
Read more: Vitalik Blerin recommends to replace EVM of Ethereum with RISC-V
