How to understand ETH2.0: start with understanding the terms

蓝狐笔记

特邀专栏作者

2020-03-03 13:56 (UTC+8)

This article is about 1427 words, reading the full article takes about 3 minutes

How to understand the new terms on ETH2.0.

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How to understand the new terms on ETH2.0.

Editor's Note: This article comes fromBlue Fox Notes (ID: lanhubiji), reprinted by Odaily with authorization.

Editor's Note: This article comes from

Blue Fox Notes (ID: lanhubiji)

, reprinted by Odaily with authorization.

The waiting time for ETH2.0 is very long. If the network is migrated from PoW to PoS, the waiting time will be even longer. At the same time, there are some major upgrades in terms of scalability. One of the important milestones was the freezing of the first phase of the development specification, and we can now see the results of the enormous research and development work invested.

beacon chain

When I started researching ETH2.0, the first thing that overwhelmed me was the huge amount of new terminology. What is a "crosslink", is a "slot" a block? (no, it is not). Are provers and verifiers the same thing?
The list below attempts to describe the most commonly used terms in ETH2.0. However, this is not an exhaustive list, but focuses on the most important details that may raise doubts.
If you find any inconsistencies, please leave a message to contact us.
beacon chain
a chain that rules everything
PoS chain
consensus layer for everything

Fragmentation

Manage validators
Apply for rewards and penalties
Act as an anchor for shards via crosslinks
Fragmentation
64 shards (1024 originally planned)
semi-independent chain

Contains shard blocks

Periodically record the state of the shard blocks on the beacon chain through cross-linking
Once a block on the beacon chain is finalized, the shard blocks referenced in the included crosslinks are also considered final
Each shard has a committee of validators attesting to blocks

cross-linking

Summary of shard status
The beacon chain is only a reference to the shard
Each shard will be linked to each block

slot

slot may be empty

Verifier

Slots are filled with proven blocks
Period (Epoch)

Multiple slots (currently 32, originally planned for 64), after which validators are redistributed in the committee

Verifier
They can be inactive (not running as an actual validator), active (validating), and pending (chosen to become a validator but still in the entry queue), exited (no longer wants to participate in validation, and stays in the exited in queue)

prove

block proposer

Random validators are chosen by the beacon chain to propose validating/attesting blocks

The beacon chain has a block proposer per slot, and each shard has a block proposer per slot
prove

Vote on validity of shard blocks or beacon chain

committee
A random validator group selected by the beacon chain to prove the validity of the block (beacon & sharding)

At least 128 validators per committee

ETH2 or BETH
The base currency of the beacon chain
At the beginning, it was obtained from block rewards, and ETH1 was locked in the validator's storage contract (Blue Fox Note: ETH1 refers to the current ETH, and ETH2 refers to the ETH on the beacon chain)
Smart contracts on the PoW chain (that is, contracts on the Ethereum mainnet)

Phases of ETH2.0

Once ETH1 funds are locked on this smart contract and an event log is emitted, that event log should be read by the beacon chain and the same ETH2 should be allocated to the account, now considered a validator

This mechanism may change in the future

Until the end of the second phase, the transfer from ETH1 to ETH2 is a one-way behavior and cannot be transferred back to ETH1, but once the transfer between validators is possible, there will be an escape door because you can sell your stake.

Phases of ETH2.0

Phase 0 - Beacon Chain