Vitalik Buterin Addresses Decentralization Concerns Amid Ethereum Upgrade Debate

Vitalik Buterin has addressed concerns regarding Ethereum's dedication to decentralization following remarks from Péter Szilágyi, a key developer on the team.

Szilágyi had publicly voiced concerns about Ethereum’s development direction and potential centralization.

In response, Buterin strongly denied claims that the research team is moving towards centralization. He highlighted discussions from a recent Foundation research workshop aimed at reducing centralization, including exploring alternative proposer models, enhancing inclusion lists, and optimizing fork selection based on transaction inclusion. Buterin also mentioned efforts to speed up the deployment of the Orbit mechanism to lower staking deposit requirements.

The controversy began when Szilágyi criticized the proposed PeerDAS upgrade, which would increase Ethereum’s blob size to 32 MB. Szilágyi argued that this could make it difficult for home stakers to participate, potentially undermining decentralization. His comments on social media suggested that the research team was compromising on decentralization for the sake of verification.

Buterin’s response seeks to reassure the community that decentralization remains a top priority in Ethereum’s development. This debate reflects ongoing discussions within the Ethereum ecosystem about balancing technological progress with the principle of decentralization.

In a broader perspective, Buterin has previously compared Ethereum’s decentralization to that of Bitcoin and other networks. At ETHCC in Brussels, he noted that Ethereum’s network is more decentralized than Bitcoin’s, where a few mining pools control a significant portion of the computing power. This comparison underscores Ethereum’s commitment to a decentralized structure as it evolves.