Vitalik Buterin Wants Ethereum Alignment Represented By Specific Metrics

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin has proposed an overhauling Ethereum alignment.

In a post, Buterin shared that one of the key challenges facing the ecosystem is integrating decentralization with cooperation among the different groups of people.

This includes client teams, researchers, layer 2 teams, application developers, and local community groups.

Ensuring that everyone is building collectively toward one Ethereum ecosystem remains to be addressed.

While the community has proposed the concept of "Ethereum alignment" before, Buterin feels that the concept is poorly defined." if alignment means having the right friends, then "alignment" as a concept has failed", Buterin mentioned in the blog post.

To tackle this issue, Buterin recommended clarifying the concept of alignment by deconstructing it into specific characteristics that can be evaluated using established metrics.

Buterin suggested 4 starting points namely: Open source, Open standards, Decentralization and security, and Positive-sum.

Open source

The value of open source lies in two key reasons: it enables code to be reviewed for security, and, most significantly, it minimizes the possibility of getting tied to proprietary systems.

This unrestricted openness also allows for third-party improvements without any permission, encouraging innovation and collaboration freely.

Open standards

Open standards aim to promote compatibility with the Ethereum ecosystem by utilizing and enhancing current standards like ERC-20 and ERC-1271.

Decentralization and security

Determining this involves two tests: the walkway test and the insider attack test. The walkway test checks if your application would still work without the team and servers, while the insider attack test looks at the harm an insider could do to the system.

Positive-sum

Positive-sum can be seen from two perspectives: firstly, in connection to Ethereum, benefiting Ethereum holders and users; and secondly, regarding the wider world, where the promotion of ownership and cooperation leads to positive impacts on global problems.

However, not all points can be applied to each project as the metrics to evaluate will be different depending on the type of application.

Buterin ended the post by stating that his ultimate goal is to see more entities like L2beat emerge and the foundation should fund the next L2beat, but should not try and be L2beat.

It is in the Ethereum Foundation's best interest to make it a permissionless process for people to create the next L2beat while keeping its neutral stance, bringing fairness and inclusivity to the ecosystem.