The launch is Ethereum 2.0 is likely to happen this year by Q1/Q2 2022 as founder Vitalik Buterin weighs key developments ahead in line for the complete transition.
The Ethereum blockchain network is likely to undergo some major improvements ahead this year in 2022 as the developers work towards the launch of the Proof-of-stake Ethereum 2.0 by Q1/Q2 of 2022.
During his recent podcast with Bankless Vitalik Buterin explained some key initiatives and upgrades ahead for Ethereum. The Ethereum founder also talked about attaining ultimate decentralization and scalability for the blockchain. Furthermore, to increase the Ethereum network usability, Vitalik Buterin also stressed the need to make the blockchain more agile and lightweight in terms of blockchain data.
The first major step in the transition will be the “Merge” that will happen sometime during the first half of 2022. The “Merge” means that the current Ethereum mainnet will club with the beacon chain proof-of-stake (PoS) system.
Similarly, the “Surge” also plans to bring additional scalability to the Ethereum network. It will also help in providing massive bandwidth and throughput, especially on zk-rollups. Vitalik Buterin said that the “merge” and the “surge” are the most important upgrades towards building Ethereum 2.0.
The full transition to PoS Ethereum 2.0 means the end of the existing PoW Ethereum blockchain. During the transition, Ethereum’s existing execution layer shall be ported to the upcoming Proof-of-Stake consensus layer. The clients currently in charge of ETH 1.0 will also support this move. For the existing users and DApp developers, it means that interacting with Ethereum will remain very much similar post-Merge.
Calling Ethereum’s journey over the last six years, Buterin said “we are 50% of the way there”. He praised some important events like the Beacon Chain upgrade, the London hardfork and also the rise of NFTs.
Ethereum 2.0 Full Sharding Implementation
Buterin said that the merge and surge will serve as the foundation for moving towards full sharding implementation. Post sharding, the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade will be essentially complete by 80%. The entire roadmap will take another six years to complete and will lead to 100% optimization.
The Ethereum co-founder said that the next stage of development shall be allowing more users to run nodes by “democratizing access to the broadest number of participants possible to anyone and everyone who wants to verify the validity of the chain”.
Buterin has projected a scenario for building Ethereum 2.0 without compromising on decentralization and scalability. “Leave the past in the past and create an Ethereum that actually becomes simpler and simpler over time,” he added.
The Ethereum founder also acknowledged the need for Layer-2 scaling solutions stating that Ethereum 1 is still not ready for mass adoption.
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