Ethereum 2.0: What You Must Know About Transition To Proof of Stake?

Ethereum 2 0 What You Must Know About Transition To Proof of Stake

After the most crucial update to Ethereum with the recent London Hard Fork, the co-founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin is confident about the Ethereum 2.0 transition. He said that EIP – 1559 (the fee reduction feature) has paved the path for the migration of Ethereum to Proof of Stake (ETH 2.0).

So, let’s understand what Ethereum 2.0 is and why it will be a watershed moment for the crypto industry.

What is Ethereum 2.0?

Ethereum 2.0, also called Eth2 or ‘Serenity’, is the next upgrade to the Ethereum blockchain. Since 2020, Ethereum 2.0 has been releasing in multiple phases starting at “Phase 0”. Each phase will improve the performance and functionality of Ethereum in different ways. There are two primary improvements introduced by Ethereum 2.0 that do not exist in Ethereum 1.0 – Proof of Stake and Shard Chains.
 
Currently, Ethereum 1.0 runs on a consensus mechanism known as Proof of Work (PoW). PoW relies on physical computing power (mining) and electricity (work) to build blocks on the blockchain. Proof of Stake (PoS) is an upgrade that enables improved security, scalability, and energy efficiency. Instead of relying on physical miners and electricity, PoS relies on validators (virtual miners) and Ether deposits. By eliminating mining which consumes a lot of electricity, Ethereum’s progressive decision to be environmentally conscious could attract the prior doubters to supporters of blockchain adaptation.
 

Merge

The process of changing PoW to ETH 2.0 is called the merge and is expected by early 2022 but could happen as early as end of 2021.

Shard Chains

Scheduled to launch in 2022, Shard Chains will be the third and final phase. Shard chains are a scalability mechanism that drastically improves the output of the Ethereum blockchain. Currently, having a single chain made up of consecutive blocks is incredibly secure and makes information easy to verify. However, requiring each full node to process and validate each transaction in consecutive blocks can affect the ability to process transactions quickly – especially in times of high mainnet activity. Shard chains are a mechanism through which the Ethereum blockchain is ‘split’ – thus dividing the data processing responsibility among many nodes. This allows for transactions to be processed in parallel rather than consecutively. Each shard chain is like adding another lane to upgrade Ethereum from a single lane road to a multiple lane highway.  More lanes and parallel processing lead to much higher productivity.

How will PoS work on Ethereum 2.0?

Staking on Ethereum 2.0 will be simple. There will be a minimum threshold of 32 Ethereum required to participate in staking, and validators (stakers) will need to be running a validator node, this doesn’t need to be specialized machine and could be done on a consumer-grade computer or laptop. However, validators will be expected to be online consistently or face minor penalties.
The rate of return for staking ETH is expected to be around 4%–10%. A program called “slashing” will apply to any validator acting maliciously toward the network by taking a portion of the validator’s stake.

Benefits of Ethereum 2.0

Energy Efficient 


Ethereum has historically operated a proof-of-work consensus. However, one reason for moving to proof-of-stake is that it’s generally considered to be far more energy-efficient than proof-of-work as mentioned above. Ultimately, Ethereum’s support for staking is expected to attract wider network participation compared to mining in the older version.

Decentralization 


Ethereum’s core developers are heavily in favour of decentralization, which points to another reason for moving to PoS. Over recent years, the mining of the largest cryptocurrencies, including BTC and ETH, has become heavily dependent on a small number of large mining pools due to the race for developing faster and more sophisticated mining hardware.
By contrast, anyone can operate as a PoS validator without needing specialist hardware. Therefore, the theory is that PoS blockchains stand a better chance of being more decentralized due to a lower barrier to entry. Ethereum 2.0 will also involve the implementation of sharding, which is a partitioning technique enabling faster throughput.


Faster execution


The major changes that Ethereum 2.0 brings will improve the functionality of all tokens built on the Ethereum Blockchain including iOWN Token, transactions on the tokens will be faster and execution costs less due to PoS and sharding mechanism. Eth 2.0 will be very scalable; scalability is arguably the most troublesome factor in the current Eth 1.0 network. Having +180k ERC20 tokens running on ETH requires gigantic resources. The 5 to 10-transaction-per-second speed is not capable of handling the growth. Not knowing that the Ethereum blockchain will be revolutionary in the early days, the team behind the upgrade is preparing a solid network that is scalable and can handle the vast growth while creating a perfect ecosystem for tokens. With sharding, Eth 2.0 could theoretically process hundreds of transactions per second, including lower transaction fees.

The Environmental Impact

With the transition, ETH is set to reduce its energy consumption drastically in the coming months. Estimates by Digiconomist suggest that Ethereum miners currently consume 44.49 TWh per year, rounding up to 5.13 gigawatt on a continuing basis. Going by conservative estimates, PoS is ~2000x more energy efficient, which reflects a reduction of total energy use by at least 99.95%.
 
Given the benefits of green cryptocurrencies, iOWN Token is rooting for Ethereum’s transition to Ethereum 2.0 PoS. An ERC223 token, iOWN Token utilizes smart contracts for enabling processes within its blockchain-based equity crowdfunding platform, iOWNX. The platform was conceptualized to bridge the gap between investors and businesses seeking funds.
 

Final Word

To sum up, the main highlights everyone is excited about is the scalability, speed, lower fees, eco-friendly PoS consensus, and the staking reward of 4%-10%. This upgrade can bring global institutions and the masses to the utilization of the Ethereum network and ERC Tokens.

What are your thoughts on the transition of Ethereum to Ethereum 2.0? Let us know in the comments below.
Also, you might find our blog on how to earn passive income from cryptocurrency staking useful. Do check it out.
(Certain information regarding Eth 2.0 on this blog has been cited from cointelegraph.com & consensys.net) 

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