Vitalik: Independent stakers are the "first line of defense" and also the "last line of defense" for the Ethereum network

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin shared a summary of his fireside chat at the recent Home Staking Summit in Singapore on social media, discussing the real value of independent stakers (including small businesses and community stakers) to the network, as well as what changes L1 can make to better support these stakers. Here are his key points: 

Dual role of independent stakers: Vitalik emphasized that independent stakers serve both as Ethereum's "first line of defense", providing censorship resistance, and also as the "last line of defense", protecting the network by preventing 67% final confirmation from erroneous chains.

Importance of decentralization: Independent stakers are usually unrelated to large organizations, making them difficult for regulators to capture or coerce, thereby enhancing Ethereum's status as a trusted neutral block space.

Network security considerations: Vitalik discussed the possibility of raising consensus thresholds (such as from 67% to 85%) to enhance network security. However, he also pointed out that this could bring new challenges such as lowering attack costs for blocking final confirmations.

Resource allocation optimization: He proposed an interesting point that current systems may overpay for preventing 33% frontal attacks and suggested reallocating resources to strengthen defenses against more severe attacks.

Expanding group of independent stakers: Vitalik stressed the importance of increasing numbers of independent staker so they become a crucial part in meeting current final confirmation thresholds. 

Support at L1 level: He further explored measures that Ethereum base layer (L1) might take in order to better support and encourage independent stakes.