Vernacular ETH2.0: What do you need to know?
source|MyCrypto
foreword
source|
The Eth2 upgrade is an infrastructure update for the Ethereum network. If readers hold ETH or use one of the most popular DeFi protocols, there is nothing to do as the current Ethereum network will be compatible with Eth2. The current ETH will not change in any way, and the network upgrade will not generate new tokens.
Current state of Ethereum
Ethereum's large-scale network upgrade is underway, and everyone is eagerly waiting. Eth2 has many things to consider, including the transition from PoW to PoS, sharding, and the introduction of the beacon chain. This article briefly covers the following areas:
Current state of Ethereum
Eth1: PoW (Proof of Work)
Eth2: PoS (Proof of Stake)
Eth2 roadmap
Summarize
Current state of Ethereum
Current state of Ethereum
Ethereum is currently congested, slow and has high gas fees. When the network congestion was at its worst in August, if a user submits a standard ETH transaction when the gas limit is 21,000 and the gas fee is 440gwei, it is likely to complete the transaction within 30 minutes, requiring a cost of $4.35.
image description
The network congestion is shown in Fig.
Assuming that readers now want to try some hot, new DeFi protocols, but only want to invest a small amount, it doesn't really make sense. Because the transaction fee may be higher than the price of ETH or other tokens that the user wants to invest.At present, the Ethereum network can only process about 15 transactions per second. Compared with the huge demand of the network, the transaction processing capacity per second is really too small. In addition, the current method of block generation and transaction verification is not sustainable - it is estimated that the annual electricity consumption of the Ethereum network is faster thanup.
up.
Eth2, a huge upgrade to the network, also known as Serenity, aims to solve the above-mentioned problems and regards it as a long-term goal. This massive upgrade consists of multiple phases, which will be deployed one by one, with the aim of scaling the blockchain in a secure and highly decentralized manner.
first level title
Eth1:PoW (Proof of Work)
Currently, the Ethereum network uses a PoW consensus mechanism, which is also adopted by many other blockchains such as Bitcoin. Miners process pending transactions and are rewarded for doing so. Due to the difficulty setting of the Ethereum network, it takes a lot of computing power for miners to process these transactions by generating blocks.
Essentially, anyone can become a miner on the network if they want to, but the chances of profiting from it are slim to none. Profitable mining on the Ethereum network requires the purchase of sufficient hardware, and its price far exceeds the incentives provided by mining. Because there are many costs to consider, such as electricity costs, initial cost of hardware, mining pool fees, and even taxes in some jurisdictions.
image description
https://medalla.launchpad.ethereum.org/
Leslie Rhino, Eth2 launchpad mascot
image description
Eth2:PoS (Proof of Stake)
PoS does not require huge computing power like PoW to ensure network security.
Staking refers to the fact that ETH holders become validators of the network by staking a sum of ETH. Validators run nodes through software clients, and their jobs include confirming and validating transactions, and if selected, validators will create new blocks on the blockchain.
Whether a verifier can verify a new block or transaction depends on various factors, such as how much ETH the node has staked and how long it has been staked.
Under the PoS consensus, as long as there are 32 ETH, anyone can participate in running the network. Even if users do not have enough 32 ETH, they can use consumer-grade computers, join the pledge pool, and participate in network operations.
To prevent the network from being attacked, staked funds are lost when validators attempt to corrupt or attack the blockchain by proposing new invalid transactions. This process is called "slashing", and most of the attacker's ETH (and possibly all their staked funds) will be forfeited. A validator node pledges at least 32 ETH. If the attack fails, it will lose a large sum of money.
A description that is often used to compare the current PoW system is: when an attacker launches an attack, in order to avoid the attack failing, they must consume their entire mining facility, not just the electricity cost of normal mining.
image description
Graphic: PoW vs PoS Source: seekingalpha.com
Introduction: Shard Chain
In simple terms, a shard chain is a blockchain that can be operated within Ethereum. Now, each Ethereum node must synchronize the information of the entire Ethereum blockchain before processing a new transaction. This requires more computing power and storage space than actually required.
Benefits of sharding?
Using shards, nodes can focus on a subset of shards, and they only need to sync the contents of those shards. That is, in this way, nodes do not have to store the contents of the entire Ethereum blockchain, and can use their computing power more efficiently, freeing up greater network capacity.
There will be many shards on the blockchain, and they operate in different ways. For example, sharding can run on the Ethereum network while essentially following Bitcoin's system. Although this design is too sloppy, but the possibilities are endless.
How safe is it?
Each shard will operate independently, although each shard has the same security as the other shards. This makes it very difficult to attack a single shard, since the attacker would also have to attack other shards. While shards operate independently, they are able to communicate with each other, which is where the beacon chain comes into play.
Introducing: Beacon Chain
In the current Ethereum network there is only one chain, and every Ethereum node communicates with this single chain. However, once the shards are live, there will be many different blockchains (ie shard chains) on the mainnet, working in parallel with each other. The beacon chain acts as a master, ensuring that every shard in the network synchronizes the same information and data - it provides consensus for all shard chains.
As mentioned earlier, validators can validate transactions and, if they are elected, also propose new shard blocks. If not chosen to propose a new block, the validator's job is to ensure that the proposed block is free of anomalies - to verify or attest to the proposed shard block.
How is consensus formed?
At least 128 validators are required to validate each shard block, and this group of validators forms a committee. The time frame for proposing and verifying each shard block is a slot. The committee proposes and verifies blocks for 32 slots each time, which together form an epoch, after which the committee will be disbanded and a new group of validators will be elected. This is done so that malicious validators cannot control the final outcome of a new set of proposed blocks.
When a proposed shard block has received enough proof from the committee, the crosslink will share the state of the shard, including the new block and its transaction data, to the beacon chain.
What is the role of the beacon chain?
The beacon chain records all the things in the above-mentioned whole process, rewards the proposer of the shard block with ETH, and punishes the perpetrators (that is, fines). When a block is ready and everything is running well, it still needs to be finalized to prevent bad actors from reverting it.
Eth2 roadmap
image description
source:https://medalla.launchpad.ethereum.org/
Phase 0: Beacon Chain
source:
Phase 0: Beacon Chain
The beacon chain is the first phase of Eth2. Remember: the beacon chain itself is useless, because its main job is to synchronize the shard chain, and the shard chain is not yet live.
However, the beacon chain is also responsible for coordinating validators' pledged assets. At that point it is already possible to start staking by sending ETH into the smart contract, but withdrawals cannot be made until phase 1.
This phase is expected to be released in 2020.
Phase 1: Shard Chain
Phase 1 will implement the shard chain, which can then interact with the beacon chain already implemented in phase 0. This is not yet a full implementation of sharding, so accounts or smart contracts won't be available until phase 2. As expected, Phase 1 starts with 64 shards.
This phase is expected to be released in 2021.
Phase 1.5: Mainnet becomes sharding
At this stage, the system will still adopt the PoW consensus. After phase 1.5, the Ethereum network will become fragmented and transform to PoS. This means that there are no more miners on the network, and instead ETH is staked.
This phase is expected to be released in 2021.
Phase 2: Fully functional sharding
image description
in conclusion
twitter link
After the release of Eth2, the network will be faster and cheaper, bringing more possibilities to the blockchain. Anyone can become a validator and earn income by staking their ETH while maintaining the stability and security of the network.Medalla launchpad。
Disclaimer: ECN's translation work aims to deliver high-quality information and learning resources for the Chinese Ethereum community. The copyright of the article belongs to the original author. Reprints must indicate the source of the original text and ethereum.cn. For long-term reprints, please contact ethereumcn@gmail.com Authorize.
