Ethereum is a protocol that’s present process important adjustments. Consumer groups are upgrading the protocol to satisfy world demand whereas enhancing safety and decentralization. Along with protocol improvement, a key shift in Ethereum was the transfer away from “Eth1” and “Eth2” terminology. From the tip of 2021, the principle builders stopped utilizing the terminology, preferring an “execution layer” and a “consensus layer”. At the moment, like highlighted in our Q1 roadmap, ethereum.org makes the identical shift.
- Eth1 → govt layer
- Eth2 → consensus layer
- Execution layer + consensus layer = Ethereum
Let’s discover why.
Dr.
- The phrases Eth1 and Eth2 (Ethereum 2.0) are being phased out
- Execution layer (Eth1) and consensus layer (Eth2) are new terminologies
- The plan to scale Ethereum in a decentralized method stays the identical
- You need not do something
The place did Ethereum 2.0 come from?
Ethereum has all the time had, as a part of its roadmap, plans to increase the community in a decentralized method and for transition to proof-of-stake. Initially, the researchers labored on these efforts individually, however round 2018 they did mixed into one street map beneath the umbrella of “Ethereum 2.0”..
As a part of that plan, the present Proof of Work chain (Eth1) would finally be terminated by way of a problem bomb. Customers and purposes would migrate to the brand new, proof-of-stake Ethereum chain, referred to as Eth2.
Article Signpost to Serenity by ConsenSys explains how issues stood originally of 2019.
What has modified?
How did work start on A series of lighthouses, it grew to become clear that the phased roadmap for Ethereum 2.0 would take a number of years to completely ship. This has led to a resurgence of proof-of-work chain analysis initiatives reminiscent of Stateless Ethereum, a paradigm that may take away pristine state from the community to restrict its development charge.
The elevated give attention to a long-term sustainable proof-of-work chain coupled with the conclusion that the Beacon Chain will probably be prepared a lot sooner than different elements of the Ethereum 2.0 plan have led to An “early merger” proposal.. This proposal would launch the present EVM chain as “Shard 0” of the Ethereum 2.0 system. Not solely would this velocity up the transition to proof-of-stake, however it will additionally permit for a a lot smoother transition for purposes, because the transition to proof-of-stake might occur with none migration on their half.
Shortly after this suggestion, Danny Ryan investigated how we might obtain this by leveraging present Eth1 purchasers in his Consumer relationship Eth1+Eth2 publish. This is able to vastly cut back the event work required to ship the system after the merge and leverage present purchasers, which have been battle-tested on the Mainnet for years. Across the identical time, analysis on rollups as a sustainable and safe strategy to scale Ethereum has proven promise. As a substitute of ready for a fancy, insecure scaling answer years away, we might shift the main focus to scaling by means of summation as a substitute of cut up execution.
Wish to dive deeper? Test it out at Danny Ryan’s “Eth1 + Eth2 = Ethereum” ETHGlobal presentation.
Why cannot we simply use Eth2?
Psychological fashions
One large drawback with Eth2 branding is that it creates a damaged psychological mannequin for brand new Ethereum customers. They intuitively assume that Eth1 is first and Eth2 is after. Or that Eth1 ceases to exist when Eth2 exists. Neither of those are true. By eradicating the Eth2 terminology, we save all future customers from navigating this complicated psychological mannequin.
Inclusivity
Because the Ethereum roadmap developed, Ethereum 2.0 grew to become an inaccurate illustration of Ethereum’s roadmap. Care and accuracy in selecting phrases permits content material on Ethereum to be understood by the widest attainable viewers.
Fraud prevention
Sadly, malicious actors have tried to make use of the Eth2 misnomer to trick customers by telling them to trade their ETH for ‘ETH2’ tokens or that they need to one way or the other migrate their ETH earlier than upgrading to Eth2.
We hope this up to date terminology will make clear this fraud vector and assist make the ecosystem safer.
Readability of staking
Some staking operators additionally signify ETH staking on the Beacon Chain as ‘ETH2’. This creates potential confusion, as customers of those companies don’t really obtain an ‘ETH2’ token. There isn’t a ‘ETH2’ token; it merely represents their share of that individual service supplier’s share.
How does this replace change Ethereum’s roadmap?
It does not look like it! You will need to perceive that this renaming is simply a reputation change. Options on Ethereum’s present plan (i.e merging, shredding) and future options will proceed to happen on the identical timeline. Extra on Ethereum upgrades.
Content material adjustments
ethereum.org
- Our ‘Eth2’ sources (ethereum.org/en/eth2) are actually our ‘Ethereum Upgrades’ part
- Particular person options are actually known as “upgrades”
- All pages that beforehand mentioned Eth2 have been up to date, with explanations included the place crucial
The rebrand was an enormous job with many content material adjustments. There are most likely circumstances we have missed and enhancements that also have to be made. Seen one thing that wants fixing? Ask a query or open a PR on the ethereum.org GitHub.
Staking Launchpad
Replace February 1, 2022
As a part of the large rebrand, we have additionally up to date Ethereum Staking Launchpad (previously referred to as Eth2 Launchpad) to replicate terminology adjustments. Please increase a problem or make a PR if we missed one thing.
Content material translations
If you’ll be able to translate the content material, we might admire your assist! We’ve got up to date this content material in English, however our 40+ extra languages are actually deprecated and nonetheless seek advice from Eth2 terminology. Think about getting concerned.
We’ve got up to date ours content material containers to incorporate a container for Ethereum upgrades. It will empower our a whole lot of lively Translation Program contributors to immediately goal these adjustments to launch new correct data sooner in all languages.
Involved in serving to translate ethereum.org or the Ethereum Staking Launchpad? Test it out our translation program.
A last observe
Ethereum.org is taken into account by many to be a reputable supply of data maintained by our neighborhood. Understandably, many had been reluctant to maneuver away from Eth2 terminology till ethereum.org did. We hope that our adjustments will encourage others to maneuver away from the outdated Eth2 terminology. By doing so, you’ll assist create consistency and readability all through the ecosystem, enabling extra correct psychological fashions and making Ethereum extra accessible.
Particular thanks for Group Beiko and Trent Van Epps whose writings have been extensively referenced on this article.
