Regardless of the Ethereum Merge being touted like a major upgrade towards the blockchain network, its transition to proof-of-stake theoretically causes it to be more susceptible to take advantage of.
Talking with Cointelegraph, the safety investigator described that unlike proof-of-work (Bang) systems, a proof-of-stake (PoS) system informs node validators ahead of time what blocks they’ll validate, thus enabling these to plan attacks.
The safety expert, who requested to not be named, is really a blockchain developer and security investigator focusing on an evidence-of-stake layer-2 blockchain.
The investigator described that the exploit could theoretically occur around the publish-Merge Ethereum blockchain if validators manage to set up two consecutive blocks to validate.
“If you control two consecutive blocks, you can begin an exploit on block N and finished it on block N+1 without getting any arbitrage bot arriving and fixing the cost you have manipulated among.Inches
“From a fiscal security perspective, [this vulnerability] makes them attacks relatively simpler to drag off.”
The expert stated that although it is also feasible for miners to validate consecutive blocks in Bang systems — which comes lower to “pure luck” and provides the miner virtually no time to organize a panic attack.
Consequently, the safety investigator argues that Ethereum is going to be forgoing some strength in security once the Merge becomes effective:
“As we stand at this time [with] the Ethereum proof-of-work versus Ethereum proof-of-stake, Ethereum proof-of-work comes with more powerful security […] and economic guarantees.”
“But that being stated […] proof-of-stake [still] has sufficient practical security [and] it does not really matter it’s theoretically less secure as proof-of-work. Will still be a really secure system,” he added.
Related: Buterin and Lance armstrong think about proof-of-stake shift as Ethereum Merge gets near
The safety expert added that “Ethereum is focusing on fixing [the consecutive block issue].
It’s a hard problem to resolve, but when that will get done, then proof-of-stake security will [further] increase [as] they’ll have protection against individuals attack vectors.”
Ethereum validators are susceptible to slashing in PoS, because the consensus rules specified for to economically incentivize validators to properly validate incoming transactions and then any conduct on the contrary would see their ETH stake slashed.
The Ethereum Merge is finally set to occur on Sept. 15 at approximately 2:30am UTC, according to Blocknative’s Ethereum Merge Countdown. The transition to PoS is placed to help make the Ethereum network more scalable and-efficient.
