Why I’m excited about Ethereum 2.0

Dr Vin Menon
Game of Life
Published in
5 min readJul 9, 2020

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Since the launch of Ethereum in 2015, developers have had exceedingly high expectations from the platform, and the current year has seen an important upgrade of the operating system of Ethereum. Ethereum 2.0 comes with an update that will make Ethereum better and faster. The update, known as “Ethereum 2: Serenity” will be downloadable from the Ethereum website.

Ether 2.0 is the second version of the Ethereum blockchain, a blockchain that acts as a decentralized computing service network. Ether, or ETH, is the cryptocurrency used to transact on the Ethereum network, including to compensate mining nodes for performing computations and securing the network..

The transition from ETH 1.0 to ETH 2.0 is gradual, so us enthusiasts will need to exhibit some patience. The reward we receive will be a move to an exciting concept called Staking — the next logical evolution of the Proof-of-Work based system we’ve had so far. In a staking exercise, users freeze the coins held in their Eth wallets in order to secure the blockchain. This turn is used to help validate transactions.

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But Ethereum 2.0 upgrades include a number of other new features that are expected to take place sometime in this decade.

Why the excitement?

Ever since I discovered Ethereum, I was intrigued by the idea of the decentralized world computer that Ethereum plans to offer. Ethereum 2.0 is one of the bigger steps in the process. It has reserved Ethereum and everything associated with it a better and a more secure spot on the internet. Here’s how:

  • When Ethereum clients and developers launch “Ethereum 2.0,” they will release a new blockchain network that will run alongside the existing network. If all goes well, the new Ethereum will be a so-called “decentralized world computer,” and it will have better functionality than the previous version of Ethereum. The new system will function as a trustworthy communication tunnel between users, developers, and miners.
  • The crucial thing to know about Ethereum 2.0 is that no one has completed such a sophisticated transition. It is truly difficult to predict how the transition to Ethereum 2.0 will impact the price of Ethereum. In order to avoid causing panic, the Ethereum Foundation did not announce the date of the big release of Ethereum 2.0. Therefore, it is not easy to guess the exact time of its release and its price.
  • The underlying consensus mechanism of Ethereum, which addresses the limitations of the proof-of-work blockchain, has existed since the birth of the blockchain. Proof of stake (PoS) is the most significant change in Ethereum 2.0 as it reforms the protocol for validating blockchains and the Ethereum network itself. Eth 2 is a network upgrade that is performed on the Ethereum network to increase scalability.
  • The Ethereum 2.0 Hard Fork will significantly increase the attractiveness of the Ethereum platform as a host for dApps. The developers of Ethereum insist that the most important upgrade that can be achieved with Ethereum 2.0 is scalability. As a result, it will be backward compatible, eliminating the need for a hard fork for the first time in blockchain technology history.
  • Proof of Work is the architecture deployed in the most widely used blockchain to date, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and more. The components of proof-of-work are well known to the blockchain community. To ensure that there is no interruption in data continuity, the original Ethereum proof-of-work chain will continue to run along the new Ethereum PoS chain, with the crypto focusing on blockchain companies.
  • PoS is a concept that has been in use for some time and there are already a number of PoS cryptocurrencies. Ethereum’s early promise was to create a world of computers that were decentralized by nature and would execute any code, from selling tokens to distributing credit. When people say that Ethereum is “a decentralized smart contract platform,” they mean the ability to store and execute code and smart contracts on a complete node of the network. As a result, delivering code on Ethereum is much easier than using a centralized service like AWS.
  • Since Ethereum 2.0 is built entirely on the proof-of-stake network, the validation and promotion of transactions will be based on the amount of digital assets miners own. This means that some tests, adjustments, and tunings still need to be performed, but the new system does this without interrupting the data verification tasks for any nodes. There will be no post-launch code breaks that can cause panic in this new ecosystem. The network and the clients will be synchronized properly, and you will be able to verify all the data you receive, virtually.

Assuming all phases and transitions run smoothly, this process should produce a new Ethereum 2.0, which would be in a great position to finally end Bitcoin’s long reign as the cryptocurrency king. Whether the launch of this upgrade will signal the new blockchain era remains to be seen, but it is certain that a new era is dawning for Ethereum and the cryptocurrency space as a whole. Making it an unanticipated and one of the most exciting events of the upcoming decade!

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A blockchain enthusiast and entrepreneur’s musings on the next big revolution since the Internet.