In spite of the Ethereum Merge being hyped as a major upgrade to the blockchain network, its transition to proof-of-stake theoretically makes it more vulnerable to exploitation.
The security expert claimed that while PoS isn’t “theoretically” as secure as PoW, he acknowledges it still has “sufficient practical security.”
While Speaking to Cointelegraph, the security researcher described that, unlike proof-of-work (PoW) systems, a proof-of-stake (PoS) system notifies node validators in advance what blocks they will validate, thus allowing them to plan attacks.
The security expert, reluctant to be named, is a blockchain developer and security researcher working on a proof-of-stake layer-2 blockchain.
The researcher clarified that an exploit could theoretically happen on the post-Merge Ethereum blockchain if validators manage to assemble two consecutive blocks to validate.
The expert said that while it’s also imaginable for miners to validate consecutive blocks in PoW networks — that comes down to “pure luck” and allows the miner no time to plan an outbreak.
As a result, the security researcher claims that Ethereum will be preceding some strength in security when the Merge takes effect:
“As we stand right now [with] the Ethereum proof-of-work versus Ethereum proof-of-stake, Ethereum proof-of-work does have stronger security […] and economic guarantees.”
“But that being said […] proof-of-stake [still] has sufficient practical security [and] it doesn’t really matter that it’s theoretically not as secure as proof-of-work. It’s still a very secure system,” he added.
The security expert also added that “Ethereum is working on fixing [the consecutive block issue].
It is a hard problem to solve, but if that gets done, then proof-of-stake security will [further] increase [as] they’ll have protection against those attack vectors.”
Ethereum validators are subject to reduction in PoS, as the consensus rules were designed to economically incentivize validators to properly validate incoming transactions and any conduct to the contrary would see their ETH stake slashed.
The Ethereum Merge is finally going to take place on Sept. 15 at about 2:30am UTC, conferring to Blocknative’s Ethereum Merge Countdown. The transition to PoS is going to make the Ethereum network more scalable and energy-efficient.
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