You are a bit off. As a preface, I really recommend reading https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/Proof-of-Stake-FAQ https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/Proof

You are a bit off. As a preface, I really recommend reading https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/Proof-of-Stake-FAQ https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/Proof-of-Stake-FAQ. For your first question, if people are on vacation and there are no validators then Ethereum would be dead. It wouldnt make sense that the global pool of validators would disappear, but even so, it would wait I assume. IF half the validators left, it would choose from the other half. 2. THe main chain is currently defined as the longest defined chain fully validated. To fake someone out, you would need to tell them your vote for a block, and they would need to blindly vote the same without doing any due diligence on the block (which would defeat the purpose) and they would be rightfully burned. That is the same as a miner who just copies the work of other miners, they do nothing. 3. I dont understand this at all. You do not need to stake. You are rewarded but lose liquidity. It is your choice, just as lending compute was your choice with PoW. Hopefully this is good, the link goes into a lot of detail that should clear things up!