Ethereum Merge makes network more vulnerable to attack — Security expert
Regardless of the Ethereum Merge being touted as a significant improve to the blockchain community, its transition to proof-of-stake theoretically makes it extra weak to take advantage of.
Chatting with Cointelegraph, the safety researcher defined that not like proof-of-work (PoW) methods, a proof-of-stake (PoS) system informs node validators upfront what blocks they are going to validate, thus enabling them to plan assaults.
The safety professional, who requested to not be named, is a blockchain developer and safety researcher engaged on a proof-of-stake layer-2 blockchain.
The researcher defined that an exploit may theoretically happen on the post-Merge Ethereum blockchain if validators handle to line up two consecutive blocks to validate.
“For those who management two consecutive blocks, you can begin an exploit on block N and end it on block N+1 with out having any arbitrage bot coming in and fixing the value that you’ve got manipulated in between.”
“From an financial safety standpoint, [this vulnerability] makes these assaults comparatively simpler to drag off.”
The professional mentioned that whereas it’s additionally potential for miners to validate consecutive blocks in PoW networks — that comes right down to “pure luck” and provides the miner no time to plan an assault.
Consequently, the safety researcher argues that Ethereum can be forgoing some energy in safety when the Merge takes impact:
“As we stand proper now [with] the Ethereum proof-of-work versus Ethereum proof-of-stake, Ethereum proof-of-work does have stronger safety […] and financial ensures.”
“However that being mentioned […] proof-of-stake [still] has ample sensible safety [and] it would not actually matter that it is theoretically not as safe as proof-of-work. It is nonetheless a really safe system,” he added.
Associated: Buterin and Armstrong replicate on proof-of-stake shift as Ethereum Merge nears
The safety professional added that “Ethereum is engaged on fixing [the consecutive block issue].
It’s a onerous downside to resolve, but when that will get finished, then proof-of-stake safety will [further] improve [as] they’ll have safety in opposition to these assault vectors.”
Ethereum validators are topic to slashing in PoS, because the consensus guidelines have been designed to economically incentivize validators to accurately validate incoming transactions and any conduct on the contrary would see their ETH stake slashed.
The Ethereum Merge is lastly set to happen on Sept. 15 at about 2:30am UTC, according to Blocknative’s Ethereum Merge Countdown. The transition to PoS is about to make the Ethereum community extra scalable and energy-efficient.
