After The merge, the Ethereum network is farther and farther away from the individual

At 14:44 on September 15, 2022, Ethereum officially completed the merge. With the panda and the words "POS Activated" lit up on the screen, a new era has arrived. The original execution layer of Ethereum is combined with the new POS (Proof of Stake, proof of rights and interests) consensus layer beacon chain, and POW (Proof of Work, workload proof) is abandoned, eliminating the need for energy-intensive mining. Energy consumption is reduced by approximately 99.95%, while also eliminating individual Ethereum nodes.

The requirement for a single pledge node of the Ethereum network converted to POS is 32 ETH, even if calculated based on the low price of ETH of 1,000 US dollars, it is as high as 32,000 US dollars, which is an unacceptable price for most participants. Therefore, most people turn their attention to pool pledges and centralized exchanges, and hand over their Ethereum to larger entities for safekeeping. Currently, there are four pledge methods for Ethereum:

• Solo Staking: Run your own hardware and stake 32 ETH to become a validator.
• **Staking as a Service: **Stake 32 ETH, but pay someone else to run the hardware.
• **Pool Staking: **Stake less than 32 ETH in the validator pool. Some mining pools offer you ERC-20 liquidity tokens to represent staked ETH.
• **Centralized exchange: **Pledging less than 32 ETH on the centralized exchange is the easiest

Among these four methods, centralized exchanges receive the most direct government supervision and are most likely to be affected by the same will. Mining pools avoid risks by increasing the number of node operators and running multiple validator sets. Lido as Representatives are also using various methods to reduce their centralization risks, choosing to use distributed validator technology to minimize the risk of a single operator doing evil, and so on. However, in the end, the penetration is still composed of node operators, and these institutions, like centralized exchanges, are still legally registered entities, and there is a risk of being approached by regulatory forces.

**So what if we change our thinking and return the right of verification to the user? **

The first thing to bear the brunt is the problem of funds. Only by reducing the requirements for the number of ETH pledged can more people participate. The second is the simplification of operations. Ethereum randomly selects verifiers to build and propose blocks, and randomly selects verifiers. Proof of these blocks. Any validator who fails to perform these duties when required will be subject to financial penalties. Validators who commit more serious violations, such as proposing two different blocks for the same slot or proving two proposers for the same block, will face a more severe penalty, known as a slash. Node operators, as professionals, can avoid it to the greatest extent, but it is unrealistic for ordinary people to spend a lot of time and energy to avoid duplicate signatures to prevent slash. Then a tool that lowers the pledge threshold and automatically prevents slash is the best choice for ordinary people to build verification nodes.

Of course, the Ethereum Foundation also attaches great importance to and funds the development of this type of technology. Secure_Signer technology is one of the directions, which can avoid slash to the greatest extent. Secure-Signer is a standalone implementation of ConsenSys' Web3Signer remote signing tool, which is designed to prevent two types of failures that can lead to slashes.

1. User error: By blocking validator private key access (even to validator operators), slashes due to poor key management can be avoided entirely.
2. Client Error: If the validator's consensus client is compromised or suffers a slash, Secure-Signer will act as a backstop, as the final signing operation is performed in a secure and isolated compartment.

Puffer finance is a pioneer in helping individuals regain the right to build Ethereum pledges, lowering the threshold of pledges to 2ETH, relying on secure-signer technology to prevent slash, and building a restaking service on top of eigenlayer to provide verification and protection for other networks, thus Improve economic potential. With the introduction of Secure-Signer, validators of all sizes are encouraged to contribute to the security of the Ethereum network through the Puffer Pool. The protocol implements innovative solutions such as permissionless delegated threshold validators (pDTV) and secure routers for efficient inactivity management and efficient transaction delegation, respectively.

To prevent possible slash from double signing, Secure Signer generates and protects all BLS validator keys in its encrypted and tamper-proof memory. These keys are only accessible at runtime and remain encrypted at rest, making them inaccessible to NoOps except for signing irreducible block proposals or proofs.

Given that keys are securely encrypted and bound to secure signers, they prevent misuse between multiple consensus clients, protecting NoOps from unintentional slashes caused by double-signing. Also, if their systems are compromised, the keys are properly protected from hackers.

The SGX integration brings stringent security improvements, protecting honest NoOps from serious crimes. On the rare occasion that a malicious NoOp compromises SGX, they simply discover their own validator private keys, leaving the pool's security uncompromised. Remote Attestation Verification (RAVe) confirms that NoOps are using secure signers, fostering an environment of trust and transparency across the ecosystem.

Puffer also only charges a 2.5% protocol fee. This is much lower compared to Rocketpool's 15%, Lido's 10%, Frax Eth's 10%, and centralized exchange staking services (which can charge up to 25%).

After the Shapella upgrade, liquid staking agreements such as Lido have seen substantial growth. As the leader, Lido has now occupied 31.7% of the market share, far surpassing competitors such as Coinbase and Binance, and far exceeding the market cap set by Vitalik. And the members of lido DAO are also allowing Lido to strengthen its monopoly position. A proposal to limit the volume of Lido was opposed by 99.81% of the participants.

We desperately need new players to change that. Will the newest players on the track, including Puffer, be the ones who slay the dragon?

Everything is unknown.