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Definition: Ethereum 2.0


A dramatic change to the Ethereum blockchain protocol that began testing in late 2020 and became live on September 15, 2022 (the "Merge").

Dubbed "Serenity," Ethereum 2.0 (Eth2) was designed to be more secure, far more environmentally conscious and highly scalable from a few dozen transactions per second to tens of thousands. Ethereum 2.0 uses a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism instead of proof-of-work (PoW), which has been used by both Ethereum 1.0 and Bitcoin since their inception. Proof-of-work uses a tremendous amount of electricity to process transactions, which Ethereum 2.0 cut dramatically (claims of a 99% reduction are common). In addition, Ethereum 2.0 transaction fees (gas fees) were designed to be lower. See Ethereum PoW and proof-of-work algorithm.

Locking Up (Staking) 32 Ether to Participate
Anyone who wants to mine the new Ethereum becomes an Ethereum "validator" and must lock up (stake) 32 ETH for the privilege. In the past, anybody with a computer and fast GPU could be an Ethereum miner. However, an Ethereum 2.0 proof-of-stake miner (more precisely an Ethereum validator) must invest thousands of dollars or join a pool where rewards are shared (see staking provider).




Proposers and Attesters
In Ethereum today, every staked node is a validator, and randomness is used to select "proposers" and "attesters," which were miners and validators previously.




Buterin's Phases
Ethereum inventor Vitalik Buterin must like rhymes because he announced the following Ethereum 2.0 phases. Each phase has stages.

 PHASE   ACTION

 Merge   Merge Beacon chain (9-15-22)
 Surge   Divide network (sharding)
 Verge   Change hash (see Verkle tree).
 Purge   Lessen chain size
 Splurge Future enhancements




From Eth1 to Eth2
The Beacon chain was designed to bring Ethereum 2.0 validators on board with staking. On September 15, 2022, Ethereum 1.0 blocks merged into Ethereum 2.0. When it splits into 64 shards (divisions), Ethereum will handle 64 times the workload. See blockchain sharding.