A series of fundamental and long-awaited improvements for the Ethereum network. Its main goal is to radically transform the functioning of Ethereum to make it more scalable, secure, and sustainable, addressing the limitations of the original version.
Here are the key points of what "Serenity" is about:
Transition from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) - "The Merge":
Before (PoW): Ethereum, like Bitcoin, used a consensus mechanism called "Proof-of-Work". This meant that "miners" used a large amount of computational power (and thus, energy) to solve complex mathematical problems, allowing them to validate transactions and add new blocks to the chain. It was a competitive and energy-intensive process.
Now (PoS): With "Serenity" (specifically the phase known as "The Merge"), Ethereum has switched to "Proof-of-Stake". In this model, "validators" lock or "stake" a certain amount of their Ether (ETH) as collateral. These validators are randomly selected to create new blocks and validate transactions. If they act maliciously, they can lose part of their staked ETH, which incentivizes them to behave honestly.
Benefits of PoS:
Drastic reduction in energy consumption: It is much more energy-efficient than PoW.
Greater security: By making it costly for validators to act maliciously, the system is more resistant to attacks.
Greater decentralization: Lowers the barrier to entry for participating in network validation, as expensive mining hardware is not required.
Potential for greater scalability: Lays the groundwork for future scalability improvements.
Sharding:
Scalability issue: The original Ethereum processed all transactions sequentially on a single "lane", leading to network congestion and high gas fees when demand was high (around 15-30 transactions per second).
The Sharding solution: "Serenity" introduces "shard chains". This means splitting the Ethereum network into multiple "shards" or "shard chains" that can process transactions in parallel. Instead of all nodes processing all transactions, each shard handles part of the network load, significantly increasing performance.
Benefits of Sharding: Allows Ethereum to handle a much larger volume of transactions, potentially hundreds of thousands per second, making it much more scalable and efficient.
Beacon Chain:
The "Beacon Chain" was the first phase of "Serenity" to launch (December 2020). It is the "backbone" of Ethereum 2.0.
It introduces the PoS mechanism to Ethereum and coordinates the different shards, managing the network of validators and ensuring that the shards communicate correctly. It does not process user transactions directly, but organizes the consensus of the entire network.
👉In summary, the "Serenity" update (Ethereum 2.0) is a comprehensive transformation of the Ethereum network to move from a "mining" (Proof-of-Work) system to a "staking" (Proof-of-Stake) one, and to implement a "sharding" architecture. These changes aim to make Ethereum a much faster, more efficient, cost-effective blockchain platform capable of supporting a large number of users and decentralized applications on a global scale.👈💥
