Speaking at the Korea Blockchain Week, Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, cited node centralization as a substantial obstacle for the Ethereum network as most nodes are currently hosted on centralized web services such as Amazon.
Buterin emphasized that, among the six issues Ethereum must address, node centralization stands out as the most significant. He stressed the significance of statelessness in the context of this issue.
“Stateless clients will allow users to run a node without hundreds of gigabytes of data, perhaps even on the phone,” Buterin noted.
Experts warn that this reality creates a singular point of failure, which poses significant threats to Ethereum’s promise of decentralization.
However, he cautioned that completely resolving this issue could take a decade or two. In addition to emphasizing the node issue, Buterin discussed other crucial factors that can contribute to the decentralization of Ethereum.
On his list were lowering barriers to distributed staking, improving documentation, and enhancing the security of staking.
Security and Scalability on Ethereum
Additionally, he emphasized that achieving increased scalability is the most pressing and time-sensitive concern for Ethereum. In this context, zero-knowledge (ZK) rollups were recognized as a prospective scalability-improving technology.
Complete decentralization is a long-term goal of Ethereum, which is currently taking measures to reduce its reliance on centralized nodes. Moreover, Ethereum’s reliance on centralized services such as Amazon Web Services sets the stage for complex technical obstacles.
Consequently, although scalability remains a hot topic within the Ethereum community, centralization issues, predominantly via node operation, continue to attract interest.
Vitalik’s comments provide a nuanced view of Ethereum’s future, recognizing that the path to decentralization involves technical complexities. Although interim solutions such as stateless clients offer promise, a permanent solution may be years or even decades away.
Consequently, as the Ethereum community grapples with these issues, the timeline for a completely decentralized network remains in flux and unquestionably in development.
