Ethereum Co-founder Briefs Key Developments Ahead in 2022 for the Launch of Ethereum 2.0

Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, briefs important developments for the launch of ETH 2.0. According to reports, Ethereum Mainnet will "merge" with the Beacon Chain, putting them in the same execution layer.

Currently, the Beacon Chain is shipped separately from the Mainnet chain. 

Mainnet is still secured by proof-of-work, Sametime Beacon Chain runs in parallel using proof-of-stake. The merge is when these two systems finally come together to reach ultimate scalability and decentralization. According to Buterin, ETH requires additional agility and be more lightweight in terms of blockchain data so that more people can manage and use it.

The foremost step of the development will be through "merge ." Execution will take place in the first half of this year, which will complete the transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake. After which, the second step would be the "surge." Here ETH will be delivered increased scalability, massive bandwidth, and throughput, particularly on zk-rollups. These two steps are considered critical upgrades to building the Ethereum network that successful merge and surge followed by full sharding implementation will supposedly be 80% of the roadmap. 

Buterin said the subsequent step known as the verge enables additional users to run nodes and essentially "democratizing access to the broadest number of participants possible to anyone and everyone who wants to verify the validity of the chain." After eliminating historical data, the next step will be the addition of miscellaneous upgrades such as the ability to withdraw staked ETH, which will be included in the post-merge upgrade.

According to the ETH organization, simplicity is critical in reaching the merge goal. To expedite the process, developers will be prioritizing their efforts on this transition and minimizing additional features that could delay this goal. According to Buterin, this specific roadmap is estimated to take another six years to complete, leading to 100% optimization of the network. 

Once the merge is successful, stakers will be assigned to validate the Ethereum Mainnet. Mining will be unnecessary, so miners will likely invest their earnings into staking in the new proof-of-stake system.

The Ethereum organization says the upgrade will make the crypto "more scalable, more secure, and more sustainable." The changes are being built by teams "from across the Ethereum ecosystem."

The chief advancements and improvements of Ethereum 2.0 are:-

  1. Descending power consumption
  2. Economic deflation ether.
  3. Run-on the same execution layer
  4. Homogeneous transaction fees 
  5. Decentralization and scalability
     

At the time of writing, ETH is trading at $3,816.95, ranked number 2 with a market cap of $454 billion.