Validators Create New Attack Vectors for Decentralized Systems

While PoS cryptocurrency networks offer better energy efficiency and faster finality than PoW, they have yet to be proven at scale and come with myriad concerns in various attack vectors and misaligned incentives.

Further, though most interchain blockchain projects focus on using validators for their network consensus, others have maintained the emphasis on using PoW via nuanced approaches.

Validators replace the role of miners in a PoW blockchain network and are incentivized to act honestly within the system because their stake is locked into the network while they perform their task.

Cost savings via PoS networks and quicker finality that help the network scale come at an equal cost in long-term network integrity, which is one of the fundamental value propositions of blockchains.

The misaligned incentives of validator networks often directly correspond to the attack vectors that require complicated engineering around to avoid.

The requirements for conducting these attacks are concerningly low, as only a fraction of the network validators can effectively freeze the network, create forks and lock the consensus.

Some other prominent attack vectors for PoS validating networks include the "Fake Stake attack," stake grinding and DDOS attacks against validators that are required to remain online - forcing them to lose money.

The attack vector was recently disclosed and would enable attackers with minimal stakes to crash nodes running the network's software.

One of the main concerns with validator networks is their potential for supplementing the wealth of the "Crypto 1 percent" where only validators with significant stakes will reap the rewards of staking.

As networks that rely upon validators continue to garner support among next-generation blockchain platforms, it is prudent to place the new consensus designs into the context of practicality.