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Ethereum has been popular since its birth in 2015, but recently its expensive transaction fees and low scalability have had negative effects on executing complex applications and increasing user demand for improvements in Ethereum. Ethereum 2.0 has been ongoing for some time, and it is the biggest change in the Ethereum network over the years, designed to address some of the current infrastructure problems.
According to Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin, the upgrade will accelerate Ethereum blockchain functionality and advance mass adoption.This paper will review the basic features of Ethereum 2.0 and explore what changes the upgrade will bring to the system.
What is Ethereum 2.0?
Ethereum 2.0 is not a one-time upgrade, and this is a series of changes to the network, and the whole process will be completed in the next few years. Ethereum still uses the same PoW workload proof consensus mechanism as Bitcoin. Although it is highly secure and decentralized, there are some obvious flaws.In the PoW blockchain, miners need to use high computing power to solve complex cryptographic problems (competitive rights to verify transactions), so the transaction speed on the chain is slow.In addition, the computing power competition increases power consumption, which is why Bitcoin was attacked by environmentalists.
Ethereum 2.0 will use the PoS equity proof consensus mechanism, whereby verifiers do not verify transactions through solving mathematical problems, but need to lock the native cryptocurrency of the blockchain in a smart contract.The network then randomly selects the verifier by analyzing a variety of factors (including equity size and duration).Currently, Ethereum 2.0's test platform beacon chain has more than 290,000 veriators.Under the current plan, the number of verifiers will continue to grow after the Ethereum network and the beacon chain merge in June.
Ethereum 2.0 is one of the most anticipated developments in the history of the blockchain community.If everything happens as planned, Ethereum may address its scalability issues, increase accessibility to ordinary users, and enhance the functionality of decentralized applications.
Ethereum 2.0 will bring the following 5 changes:
1.Reduce transaction costs
The high gas transaction fee is currently the biggest problem with Ethereum.The gas fee refers to the fee paid to miners who consume computing power in the verification transaction in "gwei", fluctuating depending on network demand.Usually, once the Ethereum blockchain is blocked.In this case, the miners would prioritize higher gas transaction requests, thus pushing up the overall gas transaction fee.As Ethereum turns to PoS equity certification mechanisms, processing transactions will become easier, which will effectively prevent untreated transactions from blocking the network.
2.Increase the network throughput
Part of the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade included the introduction of "fragmentation".The inning will split the blockchain into multiple chains that can process transactions independently of the backbone.
The PoW blockchain records transactions on a complete chain, such as the Bitcoin blockchain, with the history of the chain since the creation block was mined in 2009.However, the number of transactions you can handle in a chain is limited.Bitcoin can only handle seven transactions per second, while Ethereum handles only 10-15 transactions per second.
The slice creates an updated chain based on the existing backbone.According to the Ethereum Foundation, the sharinning program would split the Ethereum blockchain into 64 different chains.Since these chains are all available to validate transactions, the burden on the Ethereum master network will be reduced and the throughput of the entire ecosystem will be significantly increased.
3.Reduce the hardware requirements
When Nakamoto designed bitcoin, he intended everyone to participate in the verification and system of recording transactions.However, systematic changes have raised the threshold for ordinary people to participate in network verification.The increased difficulty of mining means that expensive advanced computers are invested to ensure computing power, and Ethereum currently faces the same problem.
Also, the node must hold copies copy of the blockchain record, which requires the node to store about 4TB of data.At current market prices, the cost of computers with 4TB of storage is about thousands of dollars.High equipment threshold is not conducive to attracting more qualified verifiers to participate in the protection and construction of the network.
Ethereum introduced the PoS consensus mechanism, which means that verifiers no longer need computationally powerful advanced devices, and that only server-level devices can be used to validate transactions.Also, the fragmentation will reduce the disk space allocated to store the Ethereum blockchain history.Since Ethereum will have 64 shinning chains in the future, verifiers only need to save one of the slice history, 1 / 64 of the total data.
4.Expand the Ethereum ecosystem
In addition to acting as a payment and settlement system, Ethereum's programmability can also be used to create smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApp) that can power industries such as NFT and DeFi.The Ethereum EVM is like a supercomputer, running on different computers (nodes) in the Ethereum network.The EVM stores the code for executing smart contracts and allows the users to interact with the dApp.
Although EVM has greatly improved Ethereum's network capabilities, its utility has declined in recent years due to increasing pressure on ecosystems.Compared to Ethereum was born in 2015, the number of dApp running on its network, including games (Axie Infinity, CryptoKitties), DeFi protocol (Uniswap, Yearn), DAO (MakerDAO) and so on.
The increasing load on the EVM decreases the network processing speed.However, improving the EVM is difficult because the code is written in a complex programming language, Solidity.According to major participants in Ethereum network development, Ethereum 2.0 will introduce the Etherum Web assembly (eWASM) designed by the World Wide Web Consortium to replace EVM.
The eWASM lets developers choose from other, simpler coding languages, such as C + + and Rust.In addition, eWASM is intended to be compatible with current Web standards, making it easier to run in regular browsers.This will make it easier for users to access the dApp from the browser without relying on browser extensions.The biggest benefit of eWASM is its impact on the developer ecosystem, and with other language options, more developers will flock to Ethereum to further promote innovation and creativity in the community.
5.Reduce the carbon footprint
Ethereum moves to PoS equity proving that the consensus mechanism will reduce power consumption and reduce negative effects on the environment.In fact, the proven energy-intensive nature of the PoW workload like Bitcoin and Ethereum 1.0 has already raised concerns among environmentalists and regulators.According to the official Ethereum blog forecast, PoS will reduce the power consumption in Ethereum by 90-95%.In addition, other expansion solutions (such as rollup and fragmentation) will also reduce the overall energy costs of transactions by expanding the economies of scale of the network.
Ethereum 2.0 progress
According to the information released by the Ethereum Foundation, Ethereum 2.0 can be divided into three stages:
Stage 0
Stage 0 began after the launch of the beacon chain on December 1,2020.The beacon chain introduces a proof of equity consensus, and making a complete verifier needs to pledge at least 32 ETH. Currently, the total lock value (TVL) is about $25 billion.The Beacon chain will be merged with the Ethereum master network in the second quarter of 2022.After the merger, the entire Ethereum network will switch to the PoS consensus mechanism.
Stage 1
According to the Ethereum Foundation plan, Phase 1 will occur later in 2022 or sometime in 2023.The upgrade of this phase will be introduced, but code development and audit are difficult, so the specific time will be adjusted according to the actual situation.
Stage 2
The final phase of Ethereum 2.0 involves replacing the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) with the Ethereum Web Components (eWASM).This will make it more accessible to Ethereum for users and developers.For users, built-in browser support will facilitate decentralized applications.For developers, freedom to use other languages will make it easier application development for the Ethereum blockchain.
Is Ethereum 2.0 the ultimate solution?
While it is unknown whether Ethereum 2.0 will succeed, the many changes and overall signs that the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade will bring will be relatively positive.A successful upgrade will completely change the fundamentals of Ethereum. With lower gas costs, higher accessibility, and a better user experience, Ethereum is likely to be the leader in blockchain technology.
*The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of SparkDAO. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
