After “Merge”, an important milestone of Ethereum, Buterin expressed his opinions about the current status and potential development of the protocol via social media.

In a detailed blog post published on October 14, Buterin highlighted several key areas where Ethereum could make major advances in the future. These areas include faster transaction times, improved security, and broader accessibility for individual stakers.

“Merge” was a major step that marks Ethereum’s transition from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake. This transition was seen as a significant change aimed at greatly reducing energy consumption and improving the security of the network.

However, Buterin stated that this process was a “long-awaited” success and acknowledged that there are still critical areas for improvement in the PoS system.

One of the most important goals that Buterin set for Ethereum is to reduce the completion time of a transaction (finality). Currently, it can take around 15 minutes for a transaction to be fully verified, and this delay can be inconvenient for users.

The fact that Ethereum is the most used blockchain network makes this period even more important because this delay in transaction times also contributes to congestion in the network.

Buterin proposed a method called “single-slot finality” as one of the solutions that would significantly reduce processing times. This system will allow transactions to be completed much faster and make Ethereum more competitive with other blockchain platforms.

Buterin first proposed this idea in July and believes it will significantly improve Ethereum’s user experience.

Additionally, Buterin touched on the need to make the Ethereum network accessible to more users. The current 32 ETH staking requirement prevents many potential users from joining the network. This poses a major obstacle for those who want to support decentralization.

To solve this problem, Buterin suggested reducing the minimum staking amount to 1 ETH. This step will enable more people to participate in the security and governance of Ethereum and strengthen the decentralization of the network. Decentralization will also increase the security of the network by reducing the risk of a single entity gaining too much control.

Another important issue that Buterin brought up was security. He suggested that cryptographic techniques such as “single secret leader election” should be used to protect Ethereum from potential attacks. This technique can help make the network more secure by making it harder for attackers to target the network.

Buterin also emphasized the importance of speeding up transaction confirmation times, exploring ways to make Ethereum more resilient to quantum computing threats in the future, and increasing the recovery threshold against 51% attacks. Such improvements will make the network more secure, resilient and user-friendly.

These far-reaching recommendations come on the eve of the “Prague-Electra” (Pectra) upgrade, one of Ethereum’s major future development steps. This upgrade, expected to take place in the first quarter of 2025, will play a key role in transforming Ethereum into a safer, faster and more decentralized blockchain network.

Buterin’s proposals aim to make Ethereum more innovative and accessible while maintaining its position as one of the most used blockchain platforms worldwide. These developments are considered important steps that will increase the competitiveness of Ethereum and strengthen the trust of the community.