Vitalik Buterin suggests major Ethereum staking changes

Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin has proposed key improvements to Ethereum’s proof-of-stake model, including lowering the staking requirement and reducing transaction finality times.

In a recent blog post, Buterin suggested lowering the current staking minimum from 32 ETH ($84,000) to 1 ETH ($2,600), aiming to make staking more accessible and mitigate centralisation concerns.

Buterin highlighted that reducing the staking threshold would encourage more solo stakers, helping to further decentralise the Ethereum network.

"Poll after poll repeatedly shows that the main factor preventing more people from solo staking is the 32 ETH minimum. Reducing the minimum to 1 ETH would solve this issue," Buterin stated.

He believes that this adjustment could increase participation, as the current rate of new validators joining the network has slowed.

Buterin also proposed speeding up Ethereum’s transaction finality, which currently takes around 15 minutes due to the reliance on epochs.

He suggested implementing "single-slot finality," which would finalise transactions every 12 seconds, making Ethereum more competitive with faster blockchains.

Buterin acknowledged that achieving single-slot finality would require significant technical refinements, but the improvement could enhance Ethereum's transaction speed.

These proposals come as Ethereum prepares for its next major upgrade, Pectra, expected to launch in early 2025.

At the time of writing, the Ethereum price was $2,626.84.