Buterin Pitches ‘A Bit Simpler’ Staking Setup for Ethereum

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has proposed adding distributed validator technology (DVT) to the blockchain’s staking mechanism, arguing it could simplify the process and the technology backing it.

Buterin pitched “native DVT” in a post to the Ethereum Research forum on Wednesday,  which he said would allow Ether (ETH) stakers “to stake without fully relying on one single node.”

Currently, Ethereum validators can only run one node to work to secure the blockchain, which can incur penalties if it goes down.

Using DVT would mean a validator could use their key across several nodes to help the network, reducing the chances of penalties.

“The key is secret-shared across a few nodes, and all signatures are threshold signed,” he explained, adding the node is “guaranteed to work correctly” as long as more than two out of three of them “are honest.”

Buterin said that several protocols use DVT, which he noted “do not do full-on consensus inside each validator, so they offer slightly worse guarantees, but they are quite a bit simpler.”

DVT should be implemented in protocol: Buterin

Buterin said that while DVT solutions require complicated setups, he pitched a “surprisingly simple alternative: we enshrine DVT into the protocol.”

Buterin’s design involved a validator being allowed to create a maximum of 16 keys, or “virtual identities,” that act independently but are considered as one by the blockchain.

Related: Vitalik Buterin makes decentralized social media a 2026 priority

This so-called “group identity,” Buterin said, is treated as taking an action, like making a block, only if a minimum number of the “virtual identities” signed off on it and are rewarded or penalized based on the actions of the majority.