The Ethereum Foundation announced a new initiative to build a “civilization-scale infrastructure”, upgrading the existing blockchain to sustain trillions of dollars in value, and embarking on an ambitious endeavour to boost the security of Ethereum. The project has been called the Trillion Dollar Security Initiative because the stated goal is to make the blockchain secure enough that billions of people are confident to invest at least $1000 each. The Foundation also wants institutional investors to feel confident enough to store $1 trillion on a single address.
The Ethereum Foundation published an announcement on their blog, stating that the Trillion Dollar Security Initiative will aim to build civilization-scale infrastructure. They praised Ethereum as the most secure blockchain available and are preparing to make it even more secure, so that it can surpass legacy blockchain projects. The Foundation wishes to boost institutional confidence in storing large sums of money on the Ethereum chain. The initiative is composed of three sections, including 1) mapping security strengths and weaknesses, 2) implementing security changes based on the mapping, and 3) improving ongoing communication about security issues. The project is led by co-chairs Fredrik Svantes and Josh Stark.
The Trillion Dollar Security Initiative will initially analyse the technology stack for security vulnerabilities, breaking apart the network into smaller chunks so that they can be visualised and improved upon. Such a method will be handy for developers to have a visualisation of the network to reference when working on more localised problems. A visualisation of the network may further allow Foundation leaders and developers to separate different Ethereum departments and build a more modular blockchain. The second phase of the Initiative will be to implement the changes. This will involve releasing updates, which will need approval by leaders in charge of the respective departments. The final phase involves teaching the broader public about the security benefits of Ethereum. A silo approach to development may directly translate to more modular code, boosting security organically from the ground up.
The EVM technology stack will be the focus of the mapping process. There already exists a process for reporting security vulnerabilities, but nothing as ambitious as the current proposal. The Ethereum Foundation has announced that a report will be published after the mapping process is completed so that developers and users can refer to a comprehensive document laying out the attack vectors of the entire technology stack. Alternatively, hackers may wish to study the visualization so that they can easily find weak spots on the network. The visualisation, however, will provide retail and institutional investors with a detailed description of the security makeup of the blockchain so that they can make informed decisions about their portfolio allocations.
Ethereum developers will have a lot of support regarding documentation and leadership. The Ethereum project is still a preferred blockchain for enterprise applications despite recent issues with scalability. With the new Pectra upgrade, Ethereum developers may feel a renewed sense of purpose after seeing the positive effects of their hard work. Ethereum is still the preferred DeFi network with around 50%-60% of locked value held on the blockchain. It would be quite an achievement to instill trust with investors, allowing them to feel comfortable storing large sums of money on a single wallet address.
