Abstract
The advent of the internet, marked by pivotal developments such as the launch of Arpanet and the standardization of HTTP, has irrevocably changed the fabric of modern society. Centralized platforms like Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Amazon have dominated this digital landscape, offering many services ranging from cloud computing to online storage. However, the centralized nature of these services has raised significant concerns regarding user privacy, data integrity, and the potential for censorship. In response to these issues, the open-source community has explored peer-to-peer alternatives, notably in the realm of distributed file systems, ledgers, and blockchain technology. Blockchains, popularized by the emergence of Bitcoin, promote a democratized service model that challenges the centralized status quo. Yet, they are not without their own challenges, including decentralization, security, privacy, and performance. This thesis delves into the nuances of blockchain technology, focusing on Ethereum's transition from Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (PoS) and its implications on network hardware requirements, topology, and overall performance. The development of Ethereum serves as a small-scale reflection of the broader ambitions and challenges in transitioning to Decentralized Finance (DeFi) platforms. Despite significant theoretical advancements in consensus mechanisms and scalability solutions, real-world implementations and experimental validations remain sparse. This work aims to bridge this gap by comprehensively analysing Ethereum's PoS transition by examining the interlaced relationships between software logic, hardware configurations, and network dynamics. Through novel measurement models and tools, this thesis contributes to a deeper understanding of how Ethereum's architectural changes impact its ecosystem and its participants' behaviours. Lastly, the research presented in this thesis illustrates the technical and operational challenges facing Ethereum and similar blockchain platforms and proposes a series of contributions that advance the field. This work empirically analyses the future enhancements in blockchain technology by exploring the implications of the network and its topology, to the viability of decentralized validation processes, and the potential for scaling solutions like Data Availability Sampling. The open-source tools and methodologies developed within the thesis scope represent the commitment to transparency and collaboration, which follows the spirit of the decentralized communities it seeks to serve. Through a mix of theoretical exploration and empirical research, this thesis aims to provide a deeper and more detailed understanding of Ethereum PoS' design choices, its capabilities and the limitations this one represents in future steps and upgrades, leading the way for more resilient, scalable, and decentralized digital infrastructures.