Ethereum 2.0 Update Roadmap

The Ethereum 2.0 roadmap involves interconnected protocol upgrades that will make the network more scalable, more secure, and more sustainable. These upgrades are being built by multiple teams from across the Ethereum ecosystem.They want to bring Ethereum into the mainstream and serve all of humanity. We have to make Ethereum more scalable, secure, and sustainable.In this article we will bring you news updates on ETH 2.0.

What Is Ethereum 2.0?

Ethereum 2.0 is a new version of the ETH blockchain that will utilize staking to verify transactions using a proof of stake consensus mechanism.

The proof of work paradigm, in which cryptocurrency miners use high-powered computers to solve complicated mathematical functions known as hashes, will be replaced by Ethereum 2.0’s staking mechanism. To verify Ethereum transactions before they are recorded on the public blockchain, the mining process demands an ever-increasing quantity of power.

Systems that use proof of work consume a lot of electricity. Bitcoin mining, for example, presently requires 127 terawatt-hours of power annually (TWh). That is presently more than the entire country of Norway’s power consumption.

ETH presently consumes nearly the same amount of energy as Finland and has a carbon footprint comparable to Switzerland. Fortunately, the merger is expected to lower Ethereum’s carbon footprint by up to 99.95%, resolving one of the cryptocurrency’s primary concerns.

The Ethereum upgrades

The ETH 2.0 upgrade process has a very large amount of work, so it is divided into 3 small stages: Beacon Chain, The Merge and Shard Chain.

Beacon Chain – 2020 

Keywords:

• The Beacon Chain doesn’t change anything about the ETH we use today.
• It introduced proof-of-stake to the Ethereum ecosystem.
• It will coordinate the network, serving as the consensus layer.
• It is an essential precursor to upcoming scaling upgrades, such as sharding.

The Beacon Chain is a ledger of accounts that conducts and coordinates the network of stakers. It isn’t quite like the Ethereum Mainnet of today. It does not process transactions or handle smart contract interactions.

Deployed on November 27, meaning the Beacon Chain started producing blocks on December 1, 2020, is the first stage to transition Ethereum from Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus mechanism to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) mechanism. During this period, the Ethereum network will have 2 parallel chains, ETH1 (using PoW) and Beacon Chain (using PoS). During this phase, to participate in staking starts October 14,2020 users need to use a min of 32 ETH and cannot withdraw until the next stages are completed.  Once The Merge happens, validators will be assigned to secure ETH Mainnet.

The transition to proof-of-stake will make Ethereum significantly more secure and decentralized by comparison. The more people that participate in the network, the more decentralized and safe from attacks it becomes.

The Merge, 2022

Keywords:

• Soon, the current Ethereum Mainnet will merge with the Beacon Chain proof-of-stake system in Q3/Q4 2022.
• This will mark the end of proof-of-work for Ethereum and the full transition to proof-of-stake.
• This sets the stage for future scaling upgrades including sharding.
• The Merge will reduce Ethereum’s energy consumption by ~99.95%.

The Merge is the most significant upgrade in the history of Ethereum. Extensive testing and bug bounties were undertaken to ensure a safe transition to proof-of-stake. Its will merge Beacon and ETH 1.0 into one chain, using PoS. This process is in its final stages, with plans to undergo The Merge on a few public testnets before finally moving forward with Mainnet on August 2022. A truly exciting step in realizing the Ethereum 2.0 vision – more scalability, security, and sustainability.

Merging with Mainnet

The Beacon Chain has not been processing Mainnet transactions. Instead, it has been reaching consensus on its own state by agreeing on active validators and their account balances. After extensive testing, the Beacon Chain’s time to reach consensus on more is rapidly approaching. After The Merge, the Beacon Chain will be the consensus engine for all network data, including execution layer transactions and account balances.

The Merge represents the official switch to using the Beacon Chain as the engine of block production. Mining will no longer be the means of producing valid blocks. Instead, the proof-of-stake validators assume this role and will be responsible for processing the validity of all transactions and proposing blocks. No history is lost. As Mainnet gets merged with the Beacon Chain, it will also merge the entire transactional history of ETH. You don’t need to do anything. Your funds are safe.

After The Merge

This will signal the end of proof-of-work for Ethereum and start the era of a more sustainable, eco-friendly Ethereum. This will also set the stage for further scalability upgrades not possible under proof-of-work, bringing Ethereum one step closer to achieving the full scale, security and sustainability outlined in its Ethereum 2.0 vision.

Sharding –2023

Keywords:

• Sharding is a multi-phase upgrade to improve Ethereum’s scalability and capacity.
• Sharding provides secure distribution of data storage requirements, enabling rollups to be even cheaper, and making nodes easier to operate.
• They enable layer 2 solutions to offer low transaction fees while leveraging the security of ETH.
• This upgrade is planned to follow The Merge of Mainnet with the Beacon Chain.

Sharding should ship sometime in 2023, depending on how quickly work progresses after The Merge. These shards will give ETH more capacity to store and access data, but they won’t be used for executing code. Sharding is the process of dividing data into small pieces and processing them at the same time to help the Ethereum network achieve higher performance, and improve scalability and capacity. In an Ethereum context, sharding will work synergistically with layer 2 rollups by splitting up the burden of handling the large amount of data needed by rollups over the entire network. This will continue to reduce network congestion and increase transactions per second.

Relationship between upgrades

Shards and the beacon chain: The Beacon Chain contains all the logic for keeping shards secure and synced up. The Beacon Chain will coordinate the stakers in the network, assigning them to shards they need to work on. And it will also facilitate communication between shards by receiving and storing shard transaction data that is accessible by other shards. This will give shards a snapshot of Ethereum’s state to keep everything up-to-date.

Shards and The Merge: By the time additional shards are added, ETH Mainnet will already be secured by the Beacon Chain using proof-of-stake. This enables a fertile Mainnet to build shard chains off of, powered by layer 2 solutions that supercharge the scalability. It remains to be seen whether Mainnet will exist as the only “smart” shard that can handle code execution – but either way, the decision to expand shards can be revisited as needed.

The history of Ethereum: A timeline of all the major milestones, forks, and updates to the Ethereum blockchain: CLICK HERE

Verdict

So now we are in the 2nd phase -The Merge, but the ETH devs have faced many difficulties and had to delay the mainnet 7 times. They promise to mainnet in August 2022. When the manine succeeds Ethereum will enter a new era. Whether it will help ETH develop as much as Vitalik Buterin’s vision or not, it takes time to evaluate. Follow Coincu to get the latest information.

If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or ideas about the project, please email ventures@coincu.com.

DISCLAIMER: The Information on this website is provided as general market commentary, and does not constitute investment advice. We encourage you to do your own research before investing.

Alan

Coincu Ventures