Ethereum 2.0 development moving quicker than expected
The growing trend of an increase in the amount of data available will enable two-layer networks to significantly increase the number of transactions per second they can offer
The Beacon chain of Ethereum (ETH) 2.0 which will bring scalability and security upgrade to the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency has passed the launch stage, marking the project’s transition to a Proof of Stake (PoS) mining algorithm. With phase 0 being the next stop, ConsenSys founder and Ethereum contributor, Joseph Lubin predicted that Eth 2.0 will devour the original Ethereum soon.
“It is very likely will get a tremendous amount of data availability in the form of shards, as well as move lots of the important functionality from Ethereum 1 to Ethereum 2.0, and essentially see Ethereum 2.0 absorb Ethereum 1 in the not too distant future”, he stated.
Speaking about Ethereum at the Asia Pacific 2020 conference held today, Lubin explained that although the insiders in the ecosystem are optimistic about how fast phase 0 could be launched, “really complicated work”, remains to be done.
ETH 2.0 rollout was believed to be strictly occurring in regimented phases. However, Lubin revealed that other aspects of the ETH 2.0 rollout are also being processed simultaneously and many upgrades may come much sooner than expected.
He further predicted that ETH 2.0 next phase will arrive within the next one year and asserted that the growing trend of increase in the amount of data available will enable two-layer networks to significantly increase the number of transactions per second they can offer.
“Essentially Ethereum 2.0 represents a massive increase in scalability, so we’re already achieving tremendous scalability with layer-two networks”, Lubin said.
The most significant change introduced by Tuesday’s launch to the network was the shift from the Bitcoin-type Proof of Work consensus to a Proof of Stake consensus. PoS is aimed at enabling a more energy-efficient method of securing the network by requiring validators to lock Ether into a staking contract, rather than solve cryptographic puzzles using computing power.
Lubin further spoke about the “cutting edge” CBDC and payments project ConsenSys has been working on, in partnership with various central banks, including the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the Bank of Thailand and the Reserve Bank of Australia.
He explained that cross-border payments were challenging to work with as the corresponding banking networks and just that the whole infrastructure was “really creaky and expensive and slow”.
“Retail payments are incredibly exciting. ConsenSys has built architectures that can handle nearly 20,000 transactions per second on an Ethereum-based network”, Lubin explained.
“We are in discussions to make that available to some major payment providers, and some of our technologies [are] being used in a hybrid commercial central bank application”, he added.
Written by Harshini Nag
