Thread by @0xstark

0. With NFTs and Eth's move to Proof of Stake in the news, I often see comments like:

"Eth has been promising to move to PoS for years, but..." or "Eth2, still under development, may launch in a year or two...."

But how many people realize that Eth2's PoS is already... live?

1. In December, the Ethereum community launched Eth2's Proof of Stake mechanism - it's called the Beacon Chain. It has been running smoothly since launch - you can watch it live here: beaconscan.com

2. But: it isn't being used for anything yet.

There's $6.2 billion securing it, 110K validators participating, and it's producing blocks every ~10 seconds.

But those blocks are empty. Why?

3. A simple metaphor: Imagine Ethereum as a bus network.

The current bus fleet runs on fossil fuels, and the community of people who use & maintain the bus network want to replace them.

4. Over a period of years, that community has designed & built a new fleet of buses that use 99.98% less energy.

This fleet is already on the road, being tested out, but not yet with any passengers.

5. Millions of people rely on this bus network. They need to be convinced that the new buses are reliable & safe.

Then, the community needs to swap out one fleet for the other, all at once. And have we mentioned no one has ever done this before?

6. This is usually called the "merge" - when the existing Ethereum network will swap over to using the Beacon chain, instead of Proof of Work.

There's growing consensus that the merge ought to be prioritized as the next step, see e.g. old.reddit.com/r/ethereum/com…

7. The Ethereum community is working towards the merge every single day. Today, developers working on Eth2 released the initial specs for community feedback.

it's happening, and it isn't that far away.

https://twitter.com/ralexstokes/status/1370034310581907458?s=20

8. If you want to learn more about Eth2 and Proof of Stake, there's a comprehensive guide here: ethereum.org/en/eth2/