“By eliminating Eth2 nomenclature, we relieve future users of the burden of navigating this perplexing mental model,” the Ethereum Foundation said.
The Ethereum Foundation has discontinued all references to Eth1 and Eth2 in favour of referring to the old blockchain as the “execution layer” and the updated Proof of Stake blockchain as the “consensus layer.”
The long-awaited switch of Ethereum from a Proof-of-Work (PoW) mining model to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism is likely to occur in the second or third quarter of this year.
The foundation listed a variety of reasons for the shift, including a “poor mental model for novice users,” fraud prevention, diversity, and stake clarity.
The Ethereum Foundation remarked in a Jan. 24 blog post that the branding of Eth2 failed to succinctly convey what was occurring to the network as a result of its sequence of upgrades:
“One significant issue with the Eth2 branding is that it generates a faulty mental model for novice Ethereum users. They believe instinctively that Eth1 comes first and Eth2 follows. Or that Eth1 vanishes while Eth2 exists.”
“Neither of these statements is accurate. By obliterating Eth2 nomenclature, we relieve future users of the burden of traversing this perplexing mental model,” the blog post said.
The new language refers to Ethereum as the combination of the execution layer (Eth1) and the consensus layer (Eth2), with specific features such as the beacon chain, merge, and shared chains referred to as “upgrades.”
The Ethereum Foundation rebrands as Eth2.
Additionally, the foundation indicated that rebranding Eth2 will help “provide clarity to remove” schemes in which malevolent actors trick victims into exchanging their Ether (ETH) for bogus ETH2 tokens, unknowing that their Ether (ETH) would immediately transfer to Eth2 after the merging.
“Unfortunately, unscrupulous actors have sought to exploit the Eth2 misnomer by convincing users to exchange their ETH for ‘ETH2’ tokens or to transfer their ETH in some way prior to the Eth2 upgrade,” the report added.
The revelation elicited a mostly indifferent reaction on the r/Ethereum subreddit, with the majority of members joking about the shift or lamenting the amount of time required to complete the merging. “I don’t care what you name it as long as you fucking ship it fast, plss,” Redditor ghfsgiwaa said.
According to user Kristkind, the attempted rebranding is “too late,” since the word “Eth2” has already been extensively accepted by the media and users:
“Everyone in the media, even those covering crypto, uses the phrase 2.0 or just Eth2. And honestly, I believe it is better that way, since [it is] much simpler to get for the (semi-)layperson than the ‘consensus layer,’ which requires knowledge of the network’s design.”
Following the expected merging and shift to PoS later this year — for real this time — the last milestone on Ethereum’s current roadmap is the shard chains upgrade, which is slated to take place in late 2022/early 2023.
With the introduction of shard chains, Ethereum’s network load will be distributed among 64 additional chains, enhancing the network’s scalability and capacity.
Despite the fact that 2022 is shaping up to be a positive year for Ethereum fundamentally, the price of Ether has taken a significant blow during the current bear market in stock and cryptocurrency markets, falling 40% in the last 30 days to about $2,437 at the time of writing.
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