Introduction
Ethereum is the second most popular cryptocurrency platform by market capitalization. It is a blockchain-based open-source decentralized software platform that provides much attractive functionality like the development and deployment of smart contracts. Decentralized applications (Dapps), etc which was not supported by Bitcoin. It also serves as the base platform for many different cryptocurrencies like Compound, MakerDao, Enjin, etc.
Like any other technology, Ethereum is also developing and planning to undergo a series of network upgrades to improve the features, functions, and performance of the current Ethereum network.
Ethereum 2.0 also termed as Eth2 or ‘Serenity’, is the next major network upgrade of the Ethereum blockchain. This upgrade will be launched in multiple phases: Phase 0, Phase 1, and Phase 2 starting with Phase 0 planned to be launched in 2020. Rest phases will be released in the coming years.
Note that the network upgrade will not lead to any changes in the data history, transaction records, etc of the Ethereum 1.0 chain. The Ethereum 1.0 chain is expected to become the first shard chain on Ethereum 2.0. Until then, the Ethereum 1.0 chain will continue to operate in the same way as it is running now. But it is expected to undergo certain improvements to embed it as an Ethereum 2.0 shard.
The main motto behind the launch of Ethereum 2.0 is to enhance the security, scalability, simplicity, and throughput of the Ethereum network.
Design Goals
Danny Ryan, Ethereum researcher has mentioned 5 important design goals for Ethereum 2.0:
· Decentralization: Common people having only a desktop or a laptop with O(C) resources would be able to process/validate O(1) shards.
· Resilience: The network will be flexible enough to recover from any major network partitions or incase of large portions of nodes go offline.
· Security: Large participation of validators in total and per unit time should not impact the overall security of the network.
· Simplicity: Network complexity will be reduced, even at the cost of loss in efficiency if required.
· Longevity: To select all components such that they are either quantum secure or can be easily swapped out for quantum secure counterparts when available.
Ethereum 2.0 Roadmap
Original diagram by Hsiao-Wei Wang Source
The PoW Main Chain is the Ethereum Mainnet that is currently running. Different development phases of Ethereum 2.0 are as follows:
· Phase 0 — Beacon Chain
The development of the Beacon Chain is currently under progress and is planned to be launched in 2020. The Beacon Chain will manage the Casper Proof of Stake protocol for itself and all of the shard chains. This is the first component to be delivered under the upgrade process.
During this phase, the Eth1 chain will works as it is. After the completion of Phase 0, there will be two active Ethereum chains: Eth1 chain (current, PoW main chain) and the Eth2 chain (new Beacon Chain).
· Phase 1 — Shard Chains
The Shard Chains will be implemented in phase 1. Shard Chains will allow parallel transaction throughput due to this feature they are treated as a solution of network scalability. In Phase 1, 64 shard chains will be deployed.
After the completion of Phase 1, the Eth1 and Eth2 chains will operate in parallel.
· Phase 2 — State Execution
Phase 2 will integrate all the design changes implemented in previous phases. The Shard chains concept that will be implemented in phase 1 will work to follow a structured chain state in this phase and the concept of Smart Contracts will be reintroduced here. Each shard will manage a virtual machine based on eWASM.This VM layer will be responsible for the execution of contracts and transactions.
Resources: ethhub
