In the “ETH Taipei 2024” event in Taipei, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin proposed the concept of “Rainbow Staking” with the aim of increasing decentralization and participation in the Ethereum network, addressing the issue of centralization concerns.
Background:
Vitalik’s first full Chinese interview on Ethereum! Interested in Taiwan? Underestimating PoS? What is Plurarity?
ETHTaipei, the Ethereum developer conference, officially kicked off on the 21st at the Nan Kang Bottle Cap Factory in Taipei. Ethereum founder Vitalik personally came to Taipei to serve as the opening speaker, bringing together industry leaders to share their vision and outlook for the future of Ethereum.
Growing concerns about Ethereum centralization
Vitalik stated that with Ethereum adopting the PoS (Proof of Stake) mechanism, there has been a lack of enthusiasm among token holders for staking, which may lead to concerns about network centralization.
He pointed out that the original purpose of introducing the PoS mechanism was to lower the threshold for running nodes and further promote decentralization. However, with the rise in the price of Ether, accumulating 32 ETH to become a solo staker has become a major challenge.
To address this issue, protocols like Lido, which enable liquidity staking (LSTs), have emerged, allowing holders of any amount of ETH to easily stake and earn rewards, reducing the barriers of capital and technology. However, this convenience has also brought about the side effect of excessive resource concentration, which may threaten the security of the Ethereum network.
Additionally, Vitalik pointed out that many current staking behaviors rely on a combination of “social pressure + virtue.” He further posed the question:
Proposal of Rainbow Staking to address Ethereum’s centralization challenges
Vitalik suggested the need to explore solutions and encourage individuals to participate in solo staking. He mentioned “Rainbow Staking” as a potential new staking mechanism that would allow light nodes to not participate in every block verification process, thus avoiding penalties (slashing) for absence, aiming to increase decentralization and participation in the Ethereum network.
In the Rainbow Staking model, there are two types of staking roles:
Heavy Operators: These nodes need to participate in the signing process in each time slot. If they fail to fulfill their responsibilities, they will be penalized (slash), meaning that a portion of their staked Ether will be deducted as a punishment.
Light Operators: Unlike Heavy Operators, these nodes only need to occasionally participate in the signing process and will not be penalized for failure to participate (not subject to slashing).
However, this proposal is still in the community discussion phase and further mechanism validation is required for implementation.
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