"Exit Test" in the Blockchain World: The Ultimate Challenge of Decentralization

At the recent EthCC conference in France, the founder of Ethereum presented a thought-provoking point: if true decentralization cannot be achieved, the future of Ethereum may face an existential crisis. To this end, he proposed three key criteria to assess the sustainable decentralization capability of a protocol, among which the "exit test" is considered the most fundamental and important aspect.

Core of Exiting the Test

The essence of testing is to verify whether users can safely withdraw assets and complete interactions even when the project team is completely out of contact. This is not only a technical issue but also a practical test of the core principles of Web3.

As early as 2022, the founder of Ethereum criticized the "auxiliary wheel" architecture adopted by most Rollup projects, pointing out that they overly rely on centralized operation and manual intervention to ensure security. A widely recognized evaluation framework divides Rollup into three stages of decentralization, from complete dependence on centralized control to full decentralization, reflecting the project's reliance on manual intervention.

Exit Capability: The Key to Decentralization

For new users and institutions, the primary consideration when entering the Web3 world is often "Can I withdraw my funds at any time?" The exit test directly addresses this question, reflecting the idea that "Not your keys, not your coins."

The protocol that truly passes the exit test allows users to independently complete operations through on-chain tools and third-party front ends, even if all nodes go offline and all operators leave. This is not only a technical requirement but also a deep adherence to the Web3 philosophy.

Widely Used Exit Design

In fact, the concept of "exit testing" has been widely practiced in various areas of Web3. Taking wallets as an example, mainstream Web3 wallets almost all allow the export of private keys or mnemonic phrases, enabling users to easily migrate their assets to any wallet software or hardware device. This design is essentially an "exit mechanism," ensuring that users can fully control their funds without having to trust the wallet company.

Decentralization Complete Framework

The three core tests proposed by the founder of Ethereum constitute a complete Decentralization framework:

1. Exit Test: Ensure users' self-rescue ability in extreme situations.
2. Internal Attack Test: Validate the system's ability to withstand internal malicious actions.
3. Trusted Computing Base Testing: Evaluating the amount of code that users need to trust and its auditability.

These three tests collectively build the decentralized foundation for the long-term sustainable development of Ethereum, truly realizing the concept of "trustless and verifiable."

In the Web3 world, true trust comes from verifiability. Only through transparent mathematics and algorithms, allowing users to verify the operation of the system at any time, can a trust mechanism be established that does not rely on the ethical conduct of the project team.

As warned by the founder of Ethereum, if this goal cannot be achieved, Ethereum may eventually become a memory of a generation, like many things that were once glorious but ultimately mediocre, forgotten by history. Therefore, "exit testing" is not only a technical challenge but also a key step for the blockchain industry towards true decentralization.