Ethereum is a protocol undergoing significant change. The client team is upgrading the protocol to meet global demand while improving security and decentralization. Aside from protocol development, a significant change for Ethereum has been the move away from the terminology ‘Eth1’ and ‘Eth2’. As of late 2021, core developers have stopped using the term., preferring an ‘execution layer’ and a ‘consensus layer’ respectively. Today as follows Highlighted in Q1 Roadmap, ethereum.org Makes the same changes.
- Eth1 → execution layer
- Eth2 → Consensus layer
- Execution layer + Consensus layer = Ethereum
Let’s see why.
Tl;dr;
- The terms Eth1 and Eth2 (Ethereum 2.0) are being phased out.
- Execution layer (Eth1) and consensus layer (Eth2) are new terms.
- The roadmap for scaling Ethereum in a decentralized manner remains the same.
- no need to do anything
Where did Ethereum 2.0 come from?
Ethereum has always been part of the roadmap Plans to expand the network in a decentralized manner and Transition to Proof of Stake. Initially, researchers conducted these efforts separately, but around 2018, It has been unified into a single roadmap under the umbrella of “Ethereum 2.0”..
As part of that roadmap, the existing proof-of-work chain (Eth1) will eventually be deprecated due to its difficulty bomb. Users and applications will be migrated to a new proof-of-stake Ethereum chain known as Eth2.
article Roadmap to Serenity ConsenSys explains the situation as of early 2019.
What has changed?
As work begins beacon chain, it has become clear that the step-by-step Ethereum 2.0 roadmap will take several years to be fully delivered. This has led to a resurgence of research initiatives into proof-of-work chains, such as stateless Ethereum, a paradigm that removes untouched states from the network to limit its growth rate.
There has been an increased focus on making the proof-of-work chain sustainable over the long term, along with the recognition that the beacon chain will be ready much earlier than other components of the Ethereum 2.0 roadmap. “Early Merge” Proposal. This proposal launches the existing EVM chain as “shard 0” of the Ethereum 2.0 system. Not only will this accelerate the transition to Proof-of-Stake, but it will also make the transition for applications much smoother because the transition to Proof-of-Stake can happen without migration.
Shortly after this proposal, Danny Ryan looked into ways to achieve this by leveraging the existing Eth1 client. Eth1+Eth2 client relationship post. This will significantly reduce the development work required to deliver the system post-merge and leverage existing clients that have been battle-tested for years on mainnet. Around the same time, Research on rollups It has proven promising as a viable and secure way to scale Ethereum. Instead of waiting for a complex and uncertain scaling solution years down the road, you can shift your focus to scaling through rollups instead of running sharding.
Want to go deeper? Check out Danny Ryan’s work “Eth1 + Eth2 = Ethereum” ETHGlobal presentation.
Why can’t I use Eth2?
mental model
One of the main problems with Eth2 branding is that it creates a broken mental model for new users of Ethereum. They intuitively think that Eth1 comes first, followed by Eth2. Or, if Eth2 exists, Eth1 no longer exists. Neither is true. By removing the Eth2 term, we can ensure that all future users do not have to navigate this confusing mental model.
inclusiveness
As Ethereum’s roadmap has evolved, Ethereum 2.0 has become an inaccurate representation of Ethereum’s roadmap. Careful and accurate word choice ensures that Ethereum’s content is comprehensible to the widest possible audience.
Fraud Prevention
Unfortunately, malicious actors have attempted to scam users using Eth2 misnames by telling them they need to exchange their ETH for ‘ETH2’ tokens or migrate their ETH before an Eth2 upgrade.
We hope this updated terminology will help eliminate these fraud vectors and make the ecosystem more secure.
Staking clarity
Some staking operators have also marked ETH staked on the beacon chain with the ‘ETH2’ ticker. This creates potential confusion in that users of these services do not actually receive ‘ETH2’ tokens. The ‘ETH2’ token does not exist. This simply represents a stake in the shares of a particular provider.
How does this update change the Ethereum roadmap?
It’s not like that! It is important to understand that this name change only means a name change. Features on Ethereum’s current roadmap, e.g. absorption, Sharding) and future features will continue to be delivered on the same timeline. More information about Ethereum upgrades.
Content changes
ethereum.org
- Our ‘Eth2’ resource (ethereum.org/en/eth2) now has a ‘Ethereum Upgrades’ section.
- Individual features are now called ‘Upgrades’.
- All pages previously discussing Eth2 have been updated and explanations have been included where applicable.
The rebrand was a massive undertaking that included many content changes. There may be cases we have missed and there are still improvements to be made. Is there anything that needs to be fixed? ethereum.org File an issue or open a PR on GitHub..
Staking Launchpad
Updated February 1, 2022
As part of a major name change, we Ethereum Staking Launchpad (formerly Eth2 Launchpad) reflects the terminology change. If something is missing, please raise an issue or write a PR..
Content translation
If you can translate our content, we can help! This content has been updated in English, but over 40 additional languages are now out of date and still reference Eth2 terminology. Please participate.
we updated content bucket Contains the Ethereum upgrade bucket. This will allow the hundreds of contributors actively participating in the translation program to target these changes directly and publish new, accurate information across multiple languages more quickly.
Interested in translating ethereum.org or Ethereum Stake Launchpad? Please confirm our translation program.
last note
For many, ethereum.org is considered a trusted source of information maintained by our community. Naturally, many people did not want to move away from Eth2 terminology until ethereum.org did so. We hope our changes will encourage others to move away from outdated Eth2 terminology. Doing so will help create consistency and clarity across the ecosystem, allowing for more accurate mental models and making Ethereum more accessible.
Special thanks Bayco Team and Trent Van Epps Many references have been made to this article.