Following the successful merger of the Goerli test network to Proof of Stake on August 10, the Ether mainnet merger was completed on September 15, the era of "The Merge" has upon us.
The Merge is a change in the consensus layer of Ethernet by moving from Proof of Work (PoW) consensus to Proof of Stake (PoS).
The Ethereum Merge Roadmap
- beacon chain + merge, which is a restructuring of the consensus + execution side of Ether. These two steps separate the architecture of the beacon chain (consensus layer), and the main chain (execution layer), while the miners' work is redistributed by the POS approach. Block producers tend to be professional (also with strict requirements for machines and bandwidth), while block proposers constrain block producers, thus achieving a balance.
- Merger is just the prelude of the Ethernet roadmap, and the slice + Rollup is the main chapter of Ethernet becoming the world computer. Slice serves Rollup, and Rollup carries more narrative of Ether. In particular, the slice Danksharding has been adjusted in terms of data availability, involving the sorting processing of data and the gradient processing of Gas costs.
- Like Cosmos and Polka, Ether has gone down the modular route. The beacon chain becomes where the consensus/faith is, while the main chain is similar to a real-time bulletin board (for Rollup validation and real-time updates on block processing), and Rollup is the constantly running machine above (carrying all Dapp functions).
- In the case of Shanghai Upgrade, the closest one, it is an important step in bridging the merge and split, so let's wait and see together.
What changes will come with the completion of Ethereum 2.0 upgrade?
- 99.95% energy savings, which will be significant as there will no longer be any need for competitive mining.
- More verifiers, more decentralized.
- More security, with the more expensive cost of trying to do evil or control the network under the PoS mechanism.
Will Ethereum transactions be faster after the merger, and will the Gas fee be cheaper?
Ethereum 1.0 on average 15, 6 seconds out of a block, Ethereum 2.0 every 12 seconds out of a block, the size of each block has not changed, so there will not be a big performance improvement, gas fee will not go down, these are waiting until the sharding phase is completed when there will be a big improvement.
Previously, Bitcoin's application scenario was purely financial, using PoW for maximum security. Ethereum, however, is a smart contract platform that supports and runs on the now booming DeFi, NFT, DAO or decentralized meta-universe vision, so it needs a higher performance network to ensure smoothness and enhance user experience. Ethereum will open up more possibilities.