The next major Ethereum upgrade, dubbed Ethereum 2.0, is on its way. A team of developers has been working on this upgrade, which is supposed to improve the crypto platform. Ethereum 2.0 will speed up the processes carried through the platform, as well as open many additional doors for Ethereum usage.
ETH 2.0 is En Route
Vitalik Buterin, the man who created Ethereum, has suggested the much-delayed Ethereum 2.0 is on track for a summer launch. In May this year, he said the protocol will be ready in July but has later tweaked his statement a bit, saying that he didn’t hear the word “July” in the question.
Nevertheless, other people involved in the development of ETH 2.0 have also hinted that July is the month when the big update will happen.
On Ethereum’s official blog, a recent post reassured the public that the update is coming soon, after speculation that it might end up delayed.
In addition to the posts on Ethereum’s blog, July launch was suggested by the developers working on the update, who regularly publish notes on their progress on social media platforms like Twitter.
As a reminded, Ethereum 2.0 was delayed several times already this year, but all signs are saying it should launch sometime in July.
What Exactly is Ethereum 2.0?
Ethereum is currently using the Proof-of-Work [PoW] consensus algorithm. The new version will abandon the PoW algorithm and start using the Proof-of-Stake [PoS] model.
The upgrade will happen gradually, in several phases. Phase 0 should start in July, Phase 1 is expected next year, while Phase 2 and all the other remaining phases should happen in 2022, or perhaps even later.
The main benefit of the Ethereum upgrade is an increase in the scalability of Ethereum’s mainnet. Ethereum 2.0 will also be more secure than its predecessor.
The new version of Ethereum will also introduce Proof of Stake and Shard Chains, which did not exist in the original. Eth 2.0 will not delete any transaction records, ownership data, or data history of the Ethereum 1.0 chain.
Still, probably the most significant change from the user perspective is that Ether mining will not longer be a possibility when Ethereum 2.0 comes into effect.
The End of Ether Mining
Although Ether mining has not been a very profitable business, there is still a big percentage of cryptocurrency enthusiasts who are involved in this activity. However, once Ethereum 2.0 launches, they will have to switch their focus to some other digital currency.
With the introduction of the Proof-of-Work algorithm, mining devices will become obsolete, at least when it comes to the creation of Ether.
This, however, is not seen as a big problem for the miners, the main reason being that for Ether mining, relatively affordable GPUs are used. Furthermore, GPUs used for ETH mining are flexible, which means that the miners can simply move to mining some other altcoins.
