What is Ethereum 2.0
Ethereum 2.0 also referred to as ETH2 is a major upgrade to the Ethereum network. It's designed to allow the Ethereum network to grow while increasing security, speed, and efficiency.
As of early 2021, Ethereum 2.0 and Ethereum 1.0 exist side by side - but the original Blockchain will eventually merge with ETH2 Blockchain. (If you're an ETH holder you won't have to do anything - your holdings on the ETH 1.0 Blockchain will automatically migrate to the ETH2 Blockchain.) The transition to ETH2 began in December 2020 and is scheduled to take two years.
The Necessity of Ethereum 2.0
Ethereum 1.0 Blockchain uses a "Proof of Work" consensus mechanism to verify transactions which cause an increase in fees and consume substantial resources, especially electricity.
What is Proof of Work?
Proof of Work is a consensus mechanism pioneered by Bitcoin. It makes network cryptocurrency make sure that nobody spends the same money twice without a central authority like PayPal or Visa in the middle.
Proof of Work requires a huge amount of processing power, which is contributed by virtual "miners" around the world who compete to be the first to solve a time-consuming math puzzle.
The winner gets to update the blockchain with the latest verified transactions and is rewarded with a predetermined amount of ETH.
This process happens every 30 seconds ( compared to Bitcoin's approximately 10-minute cadence). As traffic on the network has increased, the limitations of Proof of Work have caused bottlenecks during which fees spike unpredictably.
In a quest to solve the Proof of Work limitations to speed up the network and lessen resource intensive to efficiently process thousands of Ethereum transactions a second, Vitalik Buterin Ethereum's founder settles to move the Blockchain to the Proof of Stake Consensus mechanism.
Ethereum 2.0 now uses Proof of Stake which is faster, less resource-intensive, and (at least theoretically) more secure. The result is similar to Proof of Work, in that a network participant is chosen to verify the latest transactions, update the Blockchain, and earn some ETH.
- Rather than requiring a network of miners racing to solve a puzzle, Proof of Stake requires a robust network of participants who are invested in the success of the enterprise.
- These stakeholders are called validators. Instead of contributing processing power as miners do, validators contribute ETH to a "staking pool."
- The act of contributing ETH to the pool is called staking. If you choose to stake some of your ETH, you will earn rewards in proportion to the size of your stake. For most users, staking will function much like an interest-bearing savings account.
- The network selects a winner based on the amount of ETH each validator has in the pool and the length of time they've had it there - literally rewarding the most invested participants.
- Once the winner has validated the latest block of transactions, other validators can attest that the block is accurate. When a threshold number of these attestations have been made, the network updates the blockchain.
- All participating validators receive a reward in ETH, which is distributed by the network in proportion to each validator's stake.
However, some anonymous Group of Professional Blockchain Developers named "Core DAO" defer from Vitalik Buterin's stands in moving from PoW to PoS completely.
The CORE DAO Team argue that instead of abandoning PoW, the best solution is to combine the two consensus mechanism PoW + PoS to solve the Trilemma.
What is Satoshi-Core?
Satoshi-Core is an independent Blockchain to operate at the core of Web 3. Powered by a new consensus mechanism, "Satoshi Plus", Core is a Turing-complete blockchain leveraging the Bitcoin mining hash rate and the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).
Satoshi Plus consensus mechanism applies a protocol-driven validator election mechanism to combine the optimal features of Proof of Work (PoW) and Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) to ensure the maximization of security, scalability and decentralization.
The Blockchain Trilemma
Security, scalability and decentralization are the three core elements of any worthwhile blockchain. CoreDAO team in the Core whitepaper illustrated how Blockchain innovation has increasingly trended away from decentralization.
The reason for this trend is best explained using the Blockchain Trilemma, which states that all cryptocurrencies must make tradeoffs between optimal security, scalability, and decentralization.
CORE'S Satoshi Plus consensus mechanism balances the elements challenged by the blockchain Trilemma by employing a state-of-the-art Validator election mechanism combining the most critical elements of both the Bitcoin network's Proof of Work (PoW) and Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS). On top of this, Core is also EVM-compatible.
Proof of Work: As its name implies, Satoshi Plus consensus begins with Bitcoin Network. Rather than developing a completely new and independent Proof of Work algorithm, Satoshi Plus directly leverages Bitcoin's proven and preeminent PoW system. Specifically, Satoshi Plus' PoW component includes Bitcoin miners in the election of CORE'S Validator Set by having Bitcoin miners directly delegate their hash power to their preferred Validators. This hash power is the energy expenditure that ensures two of the essential Blockchain elements.
- First, it operates as the skin in the game necessary to secure a truthful ledger.
- Second, it preserves decentralization by encouraging participants from the most decentralized consensus network in the blockchain world.
Delegated Proof of Stake: Complementing the decentralized security of Bitcoin's PoW, Satoshi Plus also utilizes a form of Ethereum's scalable and energy-efficient Proof of Stake consensus. Instead of using the secure, yet inefficient consumption of energy, PoS Verifies transactions by selecting validators that have a large amount of the native tokens staked as collateral.
Problematically, however, the large staking requirements restrict small token holders from participating.
In an attempt to level the playing held, Satoshi Plus utilizes Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS), which grants all
CORE holder voting power in electing the validator set by delegating their CORE holdings to eligible
Validators.
By allowing even small-stake CORE holders to participate in the validator election process, DPoS empowers the Core community and incentives the democratization of staked CORE.
Thus, Satoshi Plus' DPoS provides scalability on top of PoW's significant decentralization and security, while still carefully maintaining the decentralization of Validator Set voters and the security ensured by skin-in-the-game incentives.
The CORE Combination
Individually, PoW and DPoS are powerful consensus mechanisms, but what makes Satoshi Plus special is the combination of the two. To combine the decentralized security of BTC-powered PoW and the scalability of DPoS, Satoshi Plus' Validator Election Mechanism selects Validators with the optimal blend of BTC hash power and staked CORE to comprise the Validator Set and produce blocks both securely and efficiently. With a lean Validator Set securely elected by a decentralized delegating/voting base, Satoshi Plus offers a high transaction rate and increased scalability without compromising security and decentralization.
The combination of Proof of Work, Delegated Proof of Stake, and an efficient Validator Election Mechanism optimally blends security, scalability, and decentralization.
Additional security and scalability are provided by other network participants such as Relaxers and Verifiers, which adhere to carefully constructed stick-and-carrot incentives. All the details behind those components and more are revealed in the
White Paper.
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