{"id":8060,"date":"2022-01-31T12:36:14","date_gmt":"2022-01-31T12:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/01\/31\/what-is-ethereum-2-0-and-will-it-solve-cryptos-problems\/"},"modified":"2022-01-31T12:36:14","modified_gmt":"2022-01-31T12:36:14","slug":"what-is-ethereum-2-0-and-will-it-solve-cryptos-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/01\/31\/what-is-ethereum-2-0-and-will-it-solve-cryptos-problems\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is \u201cEthereum 2.0\u201d and Will It Solve Crypto\u2019s Problems?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The next major revision of the Ethereum crypto network<\/a>, often called \u201cETH 2.0,\u201d promises to address some of its biggest criticisms, from high GPU prices<\/a> to environmental pollution<\/a>. Let\u2019s take a look at the proposed changes and what they might mean for the future of crypto.<\/p>\n

What Is Ethereum 2.0, and When Will It Arrive?<\/h2>\n

Ethereum 2.0 is a commonly-used term that usually represents Ethereum\u2019s the highly-anticipated switchover from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake, which promises to make Ethereum mining disappear. As of January 24, 2022, the Ethereum Foundation no longer refers<\/a> to this upgrade as \u201cEth2\u201d or \u201cEthereum 2.0.\u201d Instead, the foundation is calling it \u201cthe merge\u201d and \u201cthe docking.\u201d<\/p>\n

As we\u2019ll explain below, the Ethereum network\u2019s reliance on computing power to provide consensus (\u201cproof of work\u201d) has led to high GPU prices and criticism from environmentalists. These issues have taken on new urgency recently with the mainstream adoption of NFTs<\/a>, many of which use Ethereum smart contracts to validate tokens that link to works of art. Transitioning to proof-of-stake, which will no longer require GPU mining, is expected to solve some of these problems.<\/p>\n

The transition to Ethereum 2.0 has been promised for years, and the foundation now claims<\/a> it will finally happen in the second quarter of 2022.<\/p>\n

A Brief Refresher on Ethereum 1.0<\/h2>\n

If you\u2019re not too familiar with Ethereum<\/a>, you can conceptualize it by imagining a giant, distributed virtual computer running on the internet. If you\u2019ve ever used an emulator to run old MS-DOS games<\/a> or virtualization to run Windows on a Mac<\/a>, you\u2019ve encountered a similar principle. In both cases, a programmable virtual computer was running as software (instead of hardware) on top of another platform.<\/p>\n

Unlike a virtual machine running on a single PC, Ethereum is a distributed virtual machine made up of thousands of computers<\/a> (called nodes) linked by a blockchain<\/a>. These nodes can execute \u201csmart contracts,\u201d which are programs that run on the Ethereum virtual computer. And since Ethereum is dynamic and distributed, the size of the virtual machine can shrink or grow at any time as nodes join or leave the network.<\/p>\n

Payment in Ether (a cryptocurrency that runs as one of the applications on the Ethereum network) gives people the incentive to run these nodes and provide the computational power (known as \u201cmining\u201d) to execute the smart contracts and verify the chronological order of transactions on the Ethereum blockchain. That verification process is called \u201cconsensus<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Problems With Ethereum Today<\/h2>\n

To understand the need for Ethereum\u2019s upgrade, you need to understand Ethereum\u2019s current drawbacks. Ethereum\u2019s architects and experts alike have pointed out a handful of main problems<\/a> with how Ethereum works, and they generally regard these problems as standing in the way of wider growth of Ethereum applications. Here are a few key issues:<\/p>\n