The developer discussed the anticipated update and even alluded to rumours surrounding ETH 3.0
Ethereum announced the beginning of development on its Ethereum 2.0 “Serenity” update in 2018. Since then, the massively bullish event has garnered the attention of experts and cryptocurrency users alike, especially due to its proposed shift from Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (PoS).
While Ethereum has already announced that its original timeline for July has been pushed back, core developer, Danny Ryan, took it upon himself to answer questions about the much-awaited update. On Reddit’s r/ethfinance community, Ryan addressed concerns regarding centralisation, spoke about the shift to PoS and even tackled the rumours regarding Ethereum 3.0.
The Ethereum 2.0 update will aim to increase scalability, heighten security and to boost the speed of the network. Danny Ryan began by explaining the various stages Ethereum 2.0 will progress through to realise the upgrade. He further explained the features of the new system and addressed concerns regarding the delay in the launch of phase 0. He stated that testing periods take a long time, especially while dealing with a distributed system.
However, he was quick to reassure that although most developer focus is currently on phase 0, they are also making “swift progress” on phase 1 to ensure it is introduced soon after the launch of phase 0. Speaking of hardware, Ryan said that a computer like Raspberry Pi 4 might be able to handle phase 0, but the implementation of phase 1 will require more powerful hardware.
Ryan stated that the Ethereum developers “are aware” of the community’s concern regarding the 32 ETH lockup to run a validator node. He offered assurance that the team is open to discussing the topic again after the launch of phase 0.
He further revealed that the developers’ initial plan to include ETH transfers between validator nodes were not part of the final design. Addressing questions on how developers aim to prevent centralization, Ryan spoke of “disincentives” that will prevent “Staking – as – service” providers from growing too large. This will ensure that miner pools don’t dominate hash rates; a situation currently faced by Bitcoin.
Developers are willing to involve the entire Ethereum community to deliver a network spread across as many clients as possible, Ryan claimed. Further, he also stated that attempts at centralisation on specific clients or other points of failure will invoke a penalty.
Some questions addressed the possibility of decentralized applications with similar output models and objectives being run on specific shards to increase speed and output. The developer responded by saying that a DeFi-specific shard had not been considered and are unlikely to appear any time soon.
When the idea of ETH 3.0 involving the replacement of certain components of Ethereum to create a “quantum-resistant’’ platform was brought up by the community, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin chipped in to say, “At present, I favour the basic structure of Ethereum never again changing after (ETH 2.0) is out; only incremental tweaks,” via a comment.