What is Ethereum 2.0 ?

 

Ethereum 2.0, also known as Eth2 or “Serenity,” is an upgrade to the Ethereum blockchain. The upgrade aims to enhance the speed, efficiency, and scalability of the Ethereum network so that it can process more transactions and ease bottlenecks.

Ethereum 2.0 is launching in several phases, with the first upgrade, called the Beacon Chain, having gone live on December 1, 2020. The Beacon Chain introduces native staking to the Ethereum blockchain, a key feature of the network’s shift to a PoS consensus mechanism. As the name suggests, it is a separate blockchain from the Ethereum mainnet.

The second phase, called The Merge, is expected in the first or second quarter of 2022 and will merge the Beacon Chain with the Ethereum mainnet.

The final phase is Shard Chains, and will play a key role in scaling the Ethereum network. Instead of settling all operations on one single blockchain, shard chains spread these operations across 64 new chains.

This also means that it is much easier from a hardware perspective to run an Ethereum node because there is far less data that needs to be stored on a machine.

Shard Chains aren’t expected until 2022, but it is unclear exactly when.