Another testnet that brings V2 – Ethereum (ETH) closer to experiencing a major update with the transition to V2. This transition, initiated in December 2020, is expected to accelerate in the first quarter of 2022, with the merger between Ethereum 1.0 and Ethereum 2.0.
ETHEREUM 2.0 AND “THE MERGE”: THE LONG-AWAITED UPDATE
This is not news for anyone: Ethereum is a victim of its own success. Indeed, over the past 2 years, the network has been the cradle of the latest trends. In 2020, the network hosted the creation as well as the rise of decentralized finance ( Defi ). In 2021, it was the turn of the NFTs to become the flagship attraction on Ethereum.
Obviously, when you say boom, there is a massive influx of users. However, the Ethereum blockchain is only able to process around 20 transactions per second. As a result, excess published transactions on the network have resulted in significant congestion.
Thus, it seems to have become normal to spend several tens to hundreds of dollars to complete a transaction or interact with a smart contract on Ethereum. One of the solutions to this congestion problem lies in switching to proof of stake (PoS). This transition in the consensus algorithm should partially mitigate the problem, by increasing the processing capacity of the network.
Phase 0 of the transition to Ethereum 2.0 began in December 2020, with the launch of the beacon chain. As a reminder, the beacon chain will be the backbone of Ethereum 2.0. This ensures consensus and will coordinate the various shards planned for phase 2 of Ethereum 2.0.
The next phase, phase 1, is called “The Merge”. This aims to connect the application layer of Ethereum as we know it to the consensus layer of Ethereum 2.0. This step, scheduled for the first quarter of 2022, will mark the switch to PoS.
KINTSUGI: A FIRST TESTNET FOR THE MERGE
The Merge is just around the corner. For several months now, the developers responsible for its design have deployed various devnets to monitor its operation.
On Monday, December 20, Tim Beiko, Ethereum 2.0 Transition Coordinator, announced the deployment of the first publicly available Ethereum 2.0 testnet. Called “Kintsugi”, the latter will allow the entire community to test Ethereum 2.0 after the deployment of The Merge.
“After 4 ephemeral devnets, Kintsugi, a longer-lived public testnet, is now online. While client development and UX continue to be refined, we encourage the community to start using Kintsugi to become familiar with Ethereum in a post-merger context. “
Tim beiko
From now on, the community will test Ethereum 2.0 post-merge and report any bugs so that fixes can be made.
While the developers of Ethereum make security a watchword, the same is not true of the developers of dApps. Indeed, they are victims of numerous attacks. Recently, the BadgerDAO protocol suffered $ 120 million in losses in an attack.
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