A Comprehensive Technical Guide to Ethereum 2.0
Editor's Note: This article comes fromGolden Finance, reprinted by Odaily with authorization.
Editor's Note: This article comes from
Golden Finance
Golden Finance
, reprinted by Odaily with authorization.
Phase 0 of ETH2.0 is already on the way. Within a week, more than 500,000 ETHs were pledged in the Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract. Our expectations for Ethereum have been raised to a higher level. But from a technical point of view, the mysterious ETH2.0 is still an unpredictable form in the future, because the public chain is always trying.
Maybe we already have too high expectations for ETH2.0, so from a technical point of view, we have a detailed understanding of ETH2.0 and its recent changes, and we can give reasonable expectations based on these contents.
Starting from ETH1.0?
The word ETH2.0 is relative to ETH1.0 or ETH1.X. It is easy to distinguish from the consensus. ETH2.0 is a PoS consensus, while ETH1.0 is a PoW consensus.
When Ethereum was created, it was first started using the poa node of the foundation, and then joined the PoW node after the operation was stable, and started the mining process. Over the years, the PoW node of ETH1.0 has developed a huge number, Because of the profit power of PoW mining, Ethereum miners are also an indispensable part of the cryptocurrency mining industry. Its mining algorithm is ETHhash, using GPU mining, and ASIC mining has also appeared, but ASIC computing power is not as powerful as Bitcoin. There is such a huge gap between ASIC and GPU in mining.
Like the Bitcoin network, the ETH1.0 network of PoW has very low concurrency, and Ethereum is also a programmable network. Various smart contracts running on Ethereum will increase the number of confirmation messages on the chain. There are a lot more call messages than the Bitcoin network that only does transfers, so Ethereum is too congested.ETHBack then, CryptoKitties made Ethereum a mess. During the Defi liquidity mining boom in 2020, Ethereum was still in a mess, and Gas fees remained high. When Ethereum shifts from PoW to PoS, some of these problems will be solved, and the processing capacity can be increased from 7 transactions per second to thousands of transactions, which is already a qualitative leap.
Changes in the network structure of ETH2.0
In the roadmap of Ethereum 2.0, the ultimate goal is PoS. The PoW chain will be retained in the historical development until it is not suitable for mining, and the ETH1.0 network is completely unsuitable for work. Of course, I don’t know how many years it will be , within our predictable time, after ETH2.0 starts Phase0, PoW and PoS will be mixed. In the sharding architecture of ETH2.0, the PoW chain of ETH1.0 is a shard. Shards in the beacon chain perform the same task.
So what exactly does ETH2.0 represent?
2.0 represents the beginning of the establishment of Ethereum based on the PoS consensus, and the beacon chain will gradually undertake the main confirmation block process of Ethereum.
Compared with the current PoW chain, ETH2.0 implements PoS consensus, fragmentation structure and brings a new virtual machine eWASM. After realizing these three settings, Ethereum can be more decentralized (goals and practices may vary. difference), because a small laptop device can become a verification node. The network is more resilient, and even if a node goes offline, it will remain stable due to the arrangement of shards. Of course, the most important thing is that the processing power of the network is completely different from that of ETH1.0 as mentioned above.
3 main stages
ETH2.0 divides the early implementation into three phases, Phase0, 1, and 2 (the main changes).
Phase0 is the beginning of starting the beacon chain. Before starting the beacon chain, users need to mortgage 32 ETH to become a node, and a sufficient amount of ETH (more than 500,000) is required to start. In order to ensure the stability of the beacon chain, after the user deposits 32ETH, it cannot be withdrawn temporarily, and there will be an exit setting until Phase1. After Phase0 is launched, the ETH2.0 beacon chain will become a part of the huge Ethereum network. Although blocks have already started to be produced, it does not undertake transfers, contract execution, etc. At this time, compared with the beacon chain, the PoW chain of ETH1.0 will actually be more robust. After Phase0 starts, the ETH2.0 and 1.0 chains will face a process of mixing and becoming one.
Because the ETH2.0 and 1.0 chains are chains with different consensuses, the network must be consistent. This process is also an experimental process for forming a network ledger. According to the official instructions, 64 shards will be deployed in Phase 1 for trial operation.
For the trial run of shards, multiple Ethereum developers have revealed that it is important to test the information confirmation process between shards, because different shards are different chains, cross-shard intercommunication is necessary, and the status can only be achieved after cross-shard intercommunication Unite.
ETH2.0Phase0 makes the beacon chain run stably, and ETH1 and ETH2 chains run in parallel. After Phase1 starts, sharding starts to test. After the progress is qualified, Phase2 is the normal operation of the network and the construction of the eWASM virtual machine. Deploy smart contracts and develop dapps on the ETH2.0 chain.
new roadmap
However, after the AMA conducted by the Ethereum development team around November 20, Vitalik and the developers pointed out that the technical design of sharding in Phase 2 may be suspended, because after the rollup technology becomes the central technology of Ethereum 2.0, Phase 1 The use of rollup in the stage can already increase the processing capacity enough.
The rollup of Phase1 mentioned here. It is to segment the data layer of the beacon chain, and then submit the data to the beacon chain after being processed by rollup, so that the beacon chain will have sufficient processing capacity. (If you add the layer2 solution, the processing power will be better.)
In addition, the developer also mentioned that the ETH2.0 and 1.0 hybrid testnet will be launched in advance, which means that the state fusion of the two chains of ETH2.0 and 1.0 may be advanced. These are some changes that will appear in Ethereum 2.0 at present. In summary, it is to accelerate the progress.
Matters requiring special attention
There are a few more points to note about the special circumstances of other Ethereum 2.0:
1. In phases 0, 1 and 2, both ETH2.0 and 1.0 chains are producing blocks, so the block rewards will also be given to the two chains, and the additional issuance of ETH will increase. The official forecast is that the total inflation of the two chains Might spike initially, but then start trending towards the 0-1% range as the PoW chain fades.
2. Officials expect to migrate tools such as clients to support eWASM before Phase 2.
3. dApp needs to choose sharding in the future. Due to the problem of cross-shard communication, some combinations may be lost between shards.
4. It may be possible to face the upgrade problem of ETH1.0 chain account and contract migration to 2.0 in the future.
The part of Ethereum 2.0 that is closest to users and investors
The above are the changes that Ethereum will face based on the technical structure and technical goals. And these are changes in the bottom layer or back end of the network. As a user or investor, the actual impact of these changes is not obvious. Which participatory processes do you have most closely with users and investors? Next, we summarize the part that is most closely related to users: the technical items of the participation guide.
Ethereum's pledge contract
The first is the most important deposit pledge of Ethereum 2.0. When the phase 0 starts, the beacon chain will be officially launched. At that time, there will be BETH rewards for the beacon chain from the genesis block.
The deposit page of Ethereum 2.0 is https://launchpad.ETHereum.org/. There will be detailed participation guidelines in the page introduction. The main process includes precautions, selecting clients, saving keys, uploading key files, and selecting wallets for payment ,make a deal.
From a technical point of view, it actually locks the ETH on the Ethereum 1.0 chain into the contract and activates the authority of the node, but the reward of the node is not ETH, because the old chain and the beacon chain have not been synchronized, and the node reward is on the beacon chain. The ETH, namely BETH.
Users need to install an ETH1.0 chain client first, then install the ETH2.0 chain client, and then use the wallet of the ETH1 chain to pay. The two clients also need to run synchronously, and the ETH1 node service can also use third-party services such as infrua.
It is suggested here that the installation node needs to be installed and deployed according to the documentation of each client. For example, gETH hyperledger besu parity or directly use infura third-party services.
The operation interface of Ethereum 2.0 deposit is to download the file from the ETHereum/ETH2.0-dePoSit-cli page, and then run the ./dePoSit command in the terminal window. Another option is to build the tool from Python source code. The instructions need to be followed to ensure that all required development libraries and dePoSit-CLI tools are installed.
For more content, please check the above web page, please don't ignore the hyperlinked document description.
Node operation and maintenance cannot be ignored
In addition, the more stringent requirement is the operation of the client, because the verification of the node must be continuous. If the node goes offline, the pledged money of the user is likely to be lost. Therefore, in order to prevent the node from going offline, it is necessary to ensure the hardware running the client It needs to be turned on and running at any time, and the network also needs to be stable. For example, when using a laptop or desktop computer, it is necessary to keep the power supply online, the client online, and the network in good condition.
The same is true if you use servers or some custom hardware to run. Most of the servers may be operated in IDC, which will have higher stability, but the cost of deployment and operation and maintenance will also be high. For example, it may cost tens of dollars per month to run on a laptop, but the stability is not high. Servers or some Raspberry Pi, mini-computers, and custom motherboards are more suitable. In addition, Linux is recommended, which is more stable and lightweight. , safe, but the cost may be higher.
Participation pathways for small capital investors
In addition to building a node by yourself and then mortgaging it in, many users can actually participate with smaller funds, because 32 ETH is now a relatively large amount of assets. So those users who only hold a small amount of ETH will have other ways to invest.
This will involve a third-party problem, that is, the user will give ETH to the third party, and the third party will establish a node to mortgage. There is a fixed amount of money deposited by users, so that 32 ETH can be combined by dozens of users. After meeting 32, you can make a node mortgage.
When the third party does this, they need to get ETH and then mortgage it in, but if they just get ETH and then mortgage it into the contract, it is only a migration process, and the ETH asset flow in the entire business is just a migration process. Sexuality will be worrying, and the capital utilization rate is not high.
For the staking business of Ethereum 2.0, the best form is still to implement the deposit process as a contract, and the user will get the certificate after transferring ETH to a fixed contract. The certificate after mortgage is more important. The usual way is that the user can generate a synthetic asset certificate after depositing, and then the synthetic asset also has its own trading market, which can not only solve the liquidity problem, but also add an additional asset market. At the same time, the protocol of synthetic assets will also become a key part of future and Ethereum 2.0 contract calls.
Examples here are the rETH generated by the project stafi in the Ethereum 2.0 staking business agreement, and the aETH generated by the project stkr in the Ethereum 2.0 staking business agreement. These are the technical processes in which users can participate in the pledge of Ethereum 2.0 with quantitative small funds.
some interesting parts
write at the end
The above has introduced the cause and effect of the development of Ethereum technology, network architecture, and user participation methods. But there are still many interesting things that have not been written in Ethereum. For example, do you know that there is Ethereum 3.0 in the Ethereum roadmap?
