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Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has outlined a new native dvt framework that could reshape how staking works on the network and improve long-term resilience. Vitalik Buterin’s proposal for protocol-level DVT Vitalik Buterin has published a proposal for a major update to the Ethereum staking protocol, introducing what he calls “native Distributed Validator Technology” integrated directly at the consensus layer. The design focuses on improving security, strengthening decentralization, and lowering the risk of validator failures. Under the model, a single validator would no longer rely on just one key. Instead, it could register multiple independent keys that collectively represent one validator identity. Moreover, these keys would operate across separate nodes, which share responsibility for block production and attestations. For critical actions like block proposals and attestations, a threshold number of keys must sign to validate the operation. This threshold mechanism distributes risk: if one node or key fails, the validator can continue functioning as long as enough other keys remain online and honest. How native DVT works for Ethereum validators In the proposed native dvt scheme, an Ethereum validator can register a set of keys that together act as one entity on-chain. However, no single key can unilaterally perform consensus duties, which reduces the attack surface and operational fragility of validators. Buterin explains that the validator remains operational as long as at least two-thirds of the participating nodes behave honestly. That safety margin means the system can tolerate a minority of nodes going offline or even acting maliciously without compromising the network’s integrity or triggering a large-scale outage. Unlike current distributed validator technology setups, which typically rely on external coordination layers and custom infrastructure, this design would be embedded directly into Ethereum’s protocol. That said, it aims to maintain a familiar user experience for stakers while shifting complexity into the consensus…

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Filed under: News - @ January 21, 2026 3:27 pm