In 2013, Vitalik Buterin released a whitepaper\nsuggesting the creation of a blockchain network that would support application\ndevelopment without being tied to a single specific scripting language.\nHowever, the Ethereum blockchain platform mirrored the Proof of Work (PoW)\nalgorithm used by its predecessor; Bitcoin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over time, Ethereum has been considering abandoning the energy-intensive PoW algorithm and turning to Proof of Stake (PoS) algorithm to confirm transactions. Apart from consuming less energy, by shifting to the PoS algorithm<\/a>, Ethereum would have a higher transactional speed and improve on its scalability<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The power of the new algorithm would be unlocked by the launch of Ethereum 2.0. To ensure a smooth transition, the new platform would be rolled out in phases. As per the Ethereum 2.0 roadmap<\/a>, the launch would start with setting bases for staking on the main chain, providing random numbers through Beacon chain, enabling Sharding, and eventual activation of a virtual machine<\/a> that would give state execution results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As such, to ensure a smooth transition,\nEthereum researchers have been holding AMA (Ask Me Anything) sessions once in a\nwhile to clear contentious issues and to answer questions from the Ethereum\ncommunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a recent AMA session, Buterin<\/a> said that he honestly thinks \u201cthat there are no unresolved research challenges at this point.\u201d On how complex Ethereum 2.0 is compared to Ethereum 1.0 and migration, Vitalik said<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt got considerably simpler over the last year. There\u2019s a lot of things in ETH2 (Ethereum 2.0) that are much simpler than ETH1 (Ethereum 1.x). But there\u2019s definitely lingering complexity, and I deeply care about mining it\u2026The current approach is to fold ETH1 into ETH2 as an execution environment. In practice, this will mean that we would need to have a hard fork on the ETH1 side to rebalance some gas costs.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Interesting, during the AMA session, it\nemerged that by employing PoS, Ethereum 2.0 would be more secure as it will be\npossible to gracefully eliminate a malicious party in case of an attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As noted<\/a> by one of the researchers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOne of the beautiful things about PoS is that these attacks can be handled with grace. The community can hard-fork out the malicious actors, so they have no more voting power. The malicious actors just burnt a lot of money to temporarily halt a network\u2026 [also] If a validator behaves provably malicious, then they are slashed by having their balance reduced\u2026Minimum penalty is 1 ETH, but it goes up linearly.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Additionally, the Ethereum co-founder maintained that PoW advocates for wealth inequality because although the mined coins find themselves in \u201cfresh hands,\u201d it requires a higher starting capital to become a Proof of Work<\/a> miner, therefore, making PoW a \u201cbig rich-get-richer mechanic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n On timelines, phase one would be complete around Q3 of 2019, followed by phase tow. Beacon Chain<\/a> would start finalizing Eth 1.x at around 2021. When developers are done with Ethereum 2.0, the blockchain platform will have a transactional speed of between 5,000 and 500,000 transactions per second.<\/p>\n\n\n\nEthereum 2.0\nUnlocked<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
A Robust, Scalable Platform<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Proof-of-Work Is\nfor The Rich<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n