Ethereum still remains inconvenient for carrying out a large number of transactions, the issue of network scalability is the most urgent.
Currently, the professional community offers two main approaches to the issue of scalability:
Solutions of the so-called second level, such as Lightning Network for Bitcoin, Plasma for Ethereum. All transactions take place outside the main chain, then, at the request of the user, balances are reduced, and tokens through the "smart" contract are returned to the main blockchain. In the community, such a solution is not considered optimal, it can be used as a half-measure until the main chain becomes truly scalable.
network consensus-level Solutions, such as the Casper algorithm proposed by Ethereum developer Vlad Zamfir. This is an updated Protocol Proof of Stake with the use of sharding strategy. Sharding implies that the entire blockchain will be divided into clusters, within which all transactions will be processed faster than at the level of the General chain. The next step is to synchronize the overall network state.
Ethereum 2.0 is a combination of platform update features that the team has been working on for years. The improvements will be related to increased scalability, development of the virtual machine and additional adjustment of economic incentives within the Protocol. At what time will start the updates acne is not identified, saying it was "really not that far away".
The main bet in the development of Ethereum is made on Proof of Stake. This is a type of consensus in which getting the right to create the next block is tied to the balance entered in the system, and not to the power of the equipment, as in Proof of work in Bitcoin.
To understand what Ethereum 2.0 will be like, the developers went from January 2014, starting from the description of the idea of Proof of Stake in the theoretical consensus of Slasher, which is a modification of the consensus PoS with additional conditions regarding deposits and penalties for miners. However, this approach was not adopted, as well as other early versions – Proof of Proof of work, Hub and spoke chains, as well as Hypercube chains, which was the basis of the telegram blockchain Protocol.
Moving forward was complicated by unforeseen situations: the DAO hack in 2016, then the DDoS attack, but now Ethereum is ready for a new step – this update Serenity, a hybrid solution Proof of Stake and Proof of Work, which will completely change the mechanism of the Protocol. Serenity will make the network faster, safer and less energy-intensive.
Justin Drake, an Ethereum researcher, in his report described the approach to randomization, which is a key element for the successful implementation of Proof of stake. Justin suggests using the verifiable delay function (VDF), a mechanism that effectively replaces randomization to ensure the security of the Proof of Work consensus .
It is also planned to develop VDF ASIC-these are mining blocks that are created specifically for the VDF function. The efficiency of such blocks for transaction validation is much higher than the current Proof of work architecture, for example, instead of tens of millions of graphics cards, thousands of VDF blocks can be used, power consumption will be reduced from thousands of megawatts to hundreds of kilowatts, and the cost of Protocol maintenance in annual terms will be reduced from billions of dollars to several million.
All the changes that will be made to the Protocol will also lead to the fact that the time required to obtain the finality of the transaction will be greatly reduced. In the Bitcoin network, it is traditionally believed that it is necessary to wait about an hour for the transaction to irreversibly sign up for the chain. In the Ethereum network, exchanges require an average of 12 to 20 confirmation blocks, which is equivalent to about 3-5 minutes.
