by wodow on 5/3/21, 4:55 PM with 33 comments
by rauljordan2020 on 5/3/21, 5:17 PM
Eth2 is a monumental research effort to create a blockchain that makes no compromises on security, scalability, and decentralization. Given Ethereum is live today, secures a ton of value, and runs a lot of applications, it is almost impossible to upgrade to 2.0 via a simple network upgrade. As such, the project is split into phases. The first phase is a proof of stake chain that runs _in parallel_ to Ethereum today. People can join as validators via a "one-way burn" smart contract. The next phase is then "merging" the state of Ethereum today with this new chain using proof of stake via a docking process. That is, Ethereum will continue to function normally, but mining will be disabled and consensus will utilize proof of stake instead. My implementation of Eth2 is a client called Prysm written in Go here (https://github.com/prysmaticlabs/prysm).
Previous attempts at proof of stake were either too expensive, too centralized, or hard to scale to a large enough number of validators. After many years of research and hard work, and leveraging really awesome cryptography for signature aggregation called BLS (Boneh–Lynn–Shacham), the first phase launched December 1st, 2020 and the current proof of stake chain is now securing over $10bn worth of value at the consensus layer.
A few important things to keep in mind:
- Ethereum development for its future is quite decentralized, with 4 different teams having implemented high-quality, production clients for proof of stake. These teams are independent of the Ethereum Foundation. Most other blockchains have only one, canonical client implementation that has very large majority share
- The "merge" is happening later this year or possibly very early 2022
- The technology used in Eth2 is quite a breakthrough in cryptography and I urge those curious to dig deeper. Using BLS signatures, the protocol can support millions of validators at the consensus layer
EDIT: readability
by sendbitcoins on 5/3/21, 5:25 PM
I don't have an ETH position, but this is my understanding of price action.
https://twitter.com/DocumentEther is a pretty interesting read
by kcorbitt on 5/3/21, 5:27 PM
There are a number of innovations coming out on smaller alternative chains, but the Ethereum community still seems humble and nimble enough to adopt any of those innovations that work. That combined with its strong network effect make it likely to win.
by brightball on 5/3/21, 5:16 PM
As far as I can tell, liquidity from every other coin seems to only come from constantly trying to convince people to buy it.
by commonoddity on 5/3/21, 5:12 PM
by aent on 5/3/21, 5:13 PM
by anotha1 on 5/3/21, 5:12 PM
Edit: I'm asking because this is now mainstream and this is a thought experiment that should be well understood by now. It's hard to get a straight answer about the real world value of these instuments, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised of the [non-]response here. The problem is if questions like this continue to be scoffed at then a lot of people can get hurt.
by m00dy on 5/3/21, 5:10 PM
by anon776 on 5/3/21, 5:15 PM