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- 1 Ethereum co-creator is also keeping an eye on the threat of centralization over the blockchain network and suggested measures.
- 2 Vitaik Buterin suggested making the process easier and cheaper to ensure the entry of individual nodes.
- 3 A high number of individual nodes will help counter the growing centralization.
In the last several days, the crypto community seems conscious of the increasing centralization of the Ethereum blockchain network. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin was seen talking about the issue in a recent event. He cited centralization of nodes as one of the biggest issues for the network and needed to be resolved.
Buterin was speaking at the ongoing Korea Blockchain Week event which is scheduled from September 4 to 10, 2023. He raised concerns about the growing centralization of nodes on Ethereum and asked for attention to making cheaper and easier processes of running nodes.
The issue of nodes centralization is real as the data shows that more than a single entity holds more than half of overall Ethereum nodes.
Single Entity Serves 60% Ethereum Nodes
According to the Ethernodes data, the number of running Ethereum nodes stands at 5,901. The dashboard suggests that out of the total of all the web service providers for the nodes, Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides services to the majority of nodes. This accounts for nearly 60% of the overall available providers.
Amazon stands at almost a monopoly-like situation where the second web service provider to it, Google Cloud, holds 6.1% of all the nodes providers—almost one-tenth of AWS.
However, the Russian-Canadian software developer suggested a way out of it but it could take a decade or two. He said during the event that six key problems needed to be resolved to counter the centralization. The centralization of nodes is one among these issues. All the issues required to get resolved to keep the network decentralized.
Statelessness to Recover Ethereum’s Centralization
Buterin explained the concept of statelessness and said that making running the nodes easier for people is one of the effective ways. The situation where no centralized service providers hold the responsibility of activity verification on the network.
Since a node handles a flow of data worth hundreds of gigabytes, centralized service providers’ inclusion in the process promotes centralization. By bringing “stateless clients” over the network the flow would come down to negligible numbers, he added.
Though the concept of statelessness might sound new, it is an inherent part of Etheruem’s roadmap. Regardless of the concept staying at the core of the roadmap, it’s a fact that highly technical concerns like this are going to take a long time.
“These technical problems will have to be addressed eventually — maybe a 10-year timescale, maybe a 20-year timescale,” Buterin said.
Earlier the crypto community also raised the concerns of growing Ethereum staking of liquid staking provider protocols. The proposal of 22% self-limiting the staking, from an Ethereum community member was floating all around. Major ETH stakers reported agreeing to the concept. But the biggest ETH staker Lido Finance is yet to be dealt with since the protocol holds one-third of all the staked ETH.
With a background in journalism, Ritika Sharma has worked with many reputed media firms focusing on general news such as politics and crime. She joined The Coin Republic as a reporter for crypto, and found a great passion for cryptocurrency, Web3, NFTs and other digital assets. She spends a lot of time researching and delving deeper into these concepts around the clock, and is a strong advocate for women in STEM.
