Ethereum Blockchain (2.0): Ethereum (2.0) is the upgraded version of the Ethereum blockchain that uses a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism to verify transactions via staking. Ethereum (2.0) is an upgrade to the network.
Difference Between Ethereum And Ethereum 2.0
The main difference between Ethereum and Ethereum 2.0 is that Ethereum uses a consensus mechanism known as proof-of-work (PoW). Whereas, Ethereum 2.0 uses a proof-of-stake (PoS) mechanism.
Proof-Of-Work
Proof-of-work is a mechanism in which the miners use computer resources to solve mathematical problems and puzzles to achieve the cryptocurrency and add a transaction. It is computationally expensive as a lot of processing power is required to solve these problems. In addition, to this, there is a disadvantage to the proof-of-work mechanism. That is if any other computer wins the cryptocurrency, then the power consumed by your computer is gone wasted.
Proof-Of-Stack
In addition, Proof-of-stack is a mechanism in which you do not have to rely on miners. You can become validators instead. Validators are similar to miners in that they vary transactions and ensure the network is not processing fraudulent transactions. These validators are selected based on how much cryptocurrency they have staked and how long they have staked it for.
Validators can attest that they have seen a block. When there are enough attestations, a block can be added to the blockchain. Validators are then rewarded for the successful block proposition. This process is known as “forging” or “minting”. The main advantage of the proof-of-stake (PoS) mechanism is that you don’t need a lot of computing power to secure the blockchain.
Ethereum 2.0 Betterment In Scale
The Ethereum network (Ethereum 1.0) supports around 30 transactions per second. This is slow and hence, it causes delay and congestion. Ethereum 2.0 promises up to 100,000 transactions per second. This increase will be achieved by the implementation of shard chains.
Ethereum 1.0 has a setup that has a blockchain consisting of a single chain with consecutive blocks. This is secure but very slow and inefficient. Shard chains will split this blockchain up, enabling transactions to be handled in parallel chains instead of consecutive ones. This speeds up the network and can sell more easily.
How Ethereum 2.0 Is More Secure?
Ethereum 2.0 has been devised with security in mind. Most PoS networks have a small set of validators, which makes for a more centralized system and decreased network security. Ethereum 2.0 requires a minimum of 6,384 validators, making it more decentralized and hence, more secure.