Vlad Zamfir: Bringing Ethereum Towards Proof-of-Stake with Casper
Epicenter - Learn about Crypto, Blockchain, Ethereum, Bitcoin and Distributed Technologies
With Proof-of-Stake (PoS) a blockchain is secured not by spending an external resource such as electricity but by using value internal to the chain itself. The promise of higher security at a lower cost is what also drives Ethereum to plan a move away from Proof-of-Work to PoS in the future.
Ethereum researcher Vlad Zamfir, who leads their effort in the complex search for the optimal PoS consensus system joined us for an in-depth discussion of the challenges of PoS, the approach Casper is taking and what consensus in Ethereum land could look like in the future.
Topics covered in this episode:
- How he became interested in consensus and Proof-of-Stake (PoS)
- Why Ethereum plans to switch to the PoS systems Casper in the future
- What the Long-Range Attack and Nothing-at-Stake problems are and how Casper addresses them
- How a betting mechanism is used to get validators to reach consensus
- What centralization pressures exist for validators and what operating a validator will look like
- The role of security deposits in Casper
- The difference between Tendermint and Casper
- Whether forks create big UI/UX issues for Casper
- Why Casper is very light client friendly
Episode links:
- Introducing Casper - Ethereum Blog
- Review of Casper, Ethereumβs proposed Proof of Stake Algorithm
- Casper Protocol Specification
- Slasher, Ghost and Other Developments in Proof-of-Stake
- Epicenter Bitcoin Episode 58 with Vitalik Buterin on Proof-of-Stake
This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/105
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π 2015-11-09 22:01 / β 01:06:16
