What’s Ethereum 2.0?
Ethereum 2.0 also known as ETH2 is the upgrade in the consensus mechanism of the Ethereum Blockchain from Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (POS).
The long-awaited event in which Ethereum converted into Ethereum 2.0 is called ‘The Merge‘, which happened in September 2022.
These changes were particularly done to increase the scalability and the security of the network to make it capable of handling multiple transactions simultaneously. Ethereum 2.0 introduces a new proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism, which is more energy-efficient and allows the network to process more transactions per second.
It also includes features such as sharding and cross-shard communication, which are designed to improve the scalability of the Ethereum network.
From Ethereum to Ethereum 2.0’s Beacon Chain
For the upgrade to happen, a new structure was built alongside the main Ethereum Blockchain known as the Beacon Chain.
The Beacon Chain introduces the gossip protocol, under which nodes periodically transmit status information regarding themselves and other nodes they are aware of.
It also provides consensus logic which makes the Ethereum Blockchain even more secure.
For Ethereum 2.0 it was necessary to instruct and train the Beacon Chain in a way that it directly accepts transactions from the main Ethereum Chain and also organize these transactions in the Ethereum Blockchain using the Proof of Stake consensus mechanism.
Main differences of Ethereum vs Ethereum 2.0
- The upgradation of Ethereum 2.0 was done to make the chain even more secure. There are approximately more than 16,000 validators of a block which make the network decentralized and secure.
- In the old, POW consensus mechanism miners had to compete with each other to solve a mathematical problem and whoever did it first would be able to validate the block. In the newly introduced POS mechanism, the Ethereum Blockchain itself will determine the validators of blocks.
- Ethereum 2.0 can complete up to 100,000 transactions per second whereas in the old Ethereum only 15 transactions could be done per second. The shard chain was implemented to increase transaction speed.
Imagine Ethereum is a spaceship that isn’t quite ready for an interstellar voyage. With the Beacon Chain, the community has built a new engine and a hardened hull. After significant testing, it’s almost time to hot-swap the new engine for the old mid-flight.
The Ethereum Foundation
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