ETH 2.0 is not the upgrade we expected

ETH 2.0 is touted as the Messiah of the Ethereum blockchain. Here is the problem: it is not. The long-awaited changes are unlikely to resolve the basic network issues, which prevent wider adoption.

ETH 2.0 is not all of these

To address long-standing concerns about Ethereum, Ethereum admins announced the launch of Eth 2.0 as a set of enhancements to its current model, including a move to proof of stake (PoS) and sharding. . People can mine blocks and validate transactions based on the number of coins they have, according to the idea of ​​proof of stake. The Ethereum Foundation has stated that the transition to PoS will be completed by the end of 2021. In a recent blog post, the Ethereum Foundation pointed out that “the power requirements remain unchanged” compared to the old PoW algorithm .

In a recent interview with Forkast news, Vitalik Buterin, the brilliant mind behind the Ethereum blockchain, indicated that employees working with Ethereum are a bigger challenge than the platform itself. While the people on the project may or may not be annoying, that’s certainly not the only flaw. As appealing as the new rollout may sound, the software updates that will be implemented will not solve the long-term problems with the network that have kept it from reaching the heights envisioned by Buterin and his supporters.

Ethereum currently uses a Proof of Work (PoW) method that only allows about 15 transactions per second – about double the speed of the Bitcoin blockchain (BTC) – and is widely considered impractical for establishing large-scale decentralized finance ( Challenge). As a result, Ethereum’s gas charges are quite high. Because there are so few transactions per second, the cost of faster processing becomes competitive. According to Dune Analytics, 2-5% of Ethereum-based Decentralized Exchange (DEX) transactions have failed due to issues such as low gas prices.

Another major issue facing the Ethereum platform is poor User Experience (UX) design, but it is generally overlooked. As a result, most users who might be interested in using decentralized financial applications (DApps) or a non-fungible token market (NFT), for example, will avoid doing so because most user interfaces do not. are not only non-intuitive, but also lack educational resources to teach users how to use the platform.

Users will need to specify transaction fees and gas restrictions for processing transactions in the price of gas. How many consumers, however, are aware of this without delving into the depths of cryptocurrency jargon and data? According to Insider Intelligence, 25% of adults in the United States don’t understand or know how to invest in digital currencies. Without access to appropriate educational tools, how could users be expected to know, for example, that making a payment from two different wallets to the same receiving address would not result in conflicting nonces? The vast majority of frequent users, in all likelihood, would ignore such a problem first.

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Upgrades to ETH 2.0 don’t help much

The latest changes are intended to be more environmentally friendly while speeding up transaction processing. In addition to these improvements, the blockchain programming language is expected to evolve from the standard Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) to a language that can be used by developers who use C ++ or Rust, making it easier to code directly in a browser. While infrastructure improvements can help in some ways, such as increasing transaction throughput, they are insufficient in others.

For starters, Ethereum 2.0 has been in development for years, leaving many users wondering when the full upgrade will be available. While proof of stake is designed to reduce mining costs and energy consumption, network performance can only be improved if lead times and / or block sizes are reduced. Additionally, sharding is only useful for applications that can run independently and only need to be synced occasionally. However, due to the inherently decentralized and open-source nature of DeFi, sharding-like processing would require transactions to be routed through a chain of relays, slowing down the entire process.

Additionally, on the user experience front, Ethereum continues to lag behind to a large extent, which the Eth 2.0 update has yet to address. While Ethereum says it will release improvements that would contribute to transaction processing speed and high gasoline costs, the foundation shows a clear disregard for concerns that, if addressed, would allow a greater number of users to benefit from the user-friendly interface of Ethereum.

Another issue is that transactions have long confirmation periods, which typically results in delays, asynchronous transaction submissions, and confirmation messages, in addition to persistent difficulties with gas charge settings. Frequently, a user will not receive a confirmation immediately after completing a transaction, leaving the user in the dark as to whether or not the intended recipient received the transaction. This is a bizarre and frustrating user experience for people used to fast results on the web, such as in e-commerce situations.

Ethereum may be the darling of the blockchain world, but the hype may turn out to be little more than hype at some point, and the long-awaited update is unlikely to garner more popular use. large. It is not clear whether the anticipated changes will be able to deliver on the promises of the top executives of the Ethereum Foundation. Eth 2.0 is unlikely to make a substantial difference to anyone outside of the Ethereum community, unless Ethereum can address some of the more important concerns. At the moment, Ethereum 2.0 is more of a cosmetic tweak than a much needed game changer.

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