Ethereum is simply a protocol undergoing important changes. Client teams are upgrading the protocol to standard to conscionable planetary request portion improving information and decentralization. Beyond protocol development, a captious displacement successful Ethereum has been the question distant from ‘Eth1’ and ‘Eth2’ terminology. As of precocious 2021, halfway developers stopped utilizing the terminology, preferring ‘execution layer’ and ‘consensus layer’, respectively. Today, as highlighted successful our Q1 roadmap, ethereum.org makes the aforesaid shift.

  • Eth1 → execution layer
  • Eth2 → statement layer
  • Execution furniture + statement furniture = Ethereum

Let’s research why.

Tl;dr;

  • The presumption Eth1 and Eth2 (Ethereum 2.0) are being phased out
  • Execution furniture (Eth1) and statement furniture (Eth2) are the caller terminologies
  • The roadmap to standard Ethereum successful a decentralized mode remains the same
  • You don’t request to bash anything

Where did Ethereum 2.0 travel from?

Ethereum ever had, arsenic portion of its roadmap, plans to standard the web successful a decentralized way and to transition to proof-of-stake. Early on, researchers worked connected these efforts separately, but astir 2018 they were combined into a azygous roadmap nether the “Ethereum 2.0” umbrella.

As portion of that roadmap, the existing proof-of-work concatenation (Eth1) would yet beryllium deprecated via the trouble bomb. Users & applications would migrate to a new, proof-of-stake Ethereum chain, known arsenic Eth2.

The nonfiction The Roadmap to Serenity by ConsenSys explains however things stood arsenic of aboriginal 2019.

What changed?

As enactment began connected the Beacon Chain, it became wide that the phased Ethereum 2.0 roadmap would instrumentality respective years to present fully. This led to a revival of probe initiatives connected the proof-of-work concatenation specified arsenic Stateless Ethereum, a paradigm that would region the untouched authorities from the web to bound its maturation rate.

The accrued absorption connected making the proof-of-work concatenation semipermanent sustainable paired with the realization that the Beacon Chain would beryllium acceptable overmuch earlier than different components of the Ethereum 2.0 roadmap led to an “Early Merge” proposall. This connection would motorboat the existing EVM concatenation arsenic “Shard 0” of the Ethereum 2.0 system. Not lone would this expedite the determination to proof-of-stake, but it would besides marque for a overmuch smoother modulation for applications, arsenic the determination to proof-of-stake could hap without immoderate migration connected their end.

Shortly aft this proposal, Danny Ryan explored however we could execute this by leveraging the existing Eth1 clients successful his Eth1+Eth2 lawsuit relationship post. This would massively trim the improvement enactment required to present a post-merge strategy and leverage existing clients, which had been battle-tested for years connected Mainnet. Around the aforesaid time, research connected rollups as a viable and unafraid mode to standard Ethereum proved promising. Instead of waiting connected a complex, uncertain scaling solution years away, we could displacement the absorption towards scaling via rollups alternatively of sharded execution.

Want to dive deeper? Check retired Danny Ryan’s “Eth1 + Eth2 = Ethereum” ETHGlobal presentation.

Why can’t we conscionable usage Eth2?

Mental models

One large occupation with the Eth2 branding is that it creates a breached intelligence exemplary for caller users of Ethereum. They intuitively deliberation that Eth1 comes archetypal and Eth2 comes after. Or that Eth1 ceases to beryllium erstwhile Eth2 exists. Neither of these is true. By removing Eth2 terminology, we prevention each aboriginal users from navigating this confusing intelligence model.

Inclusivity

As the roadmap for Ethereum has evolved, Ethereum 2.0 has go an inaccurate practice of Ethereum’s roadmap. Being cautious and close successful our connection prime allows contented connected Ethereum to beryllium understood by the broadest assemblage possible.

Scam prevention

Unfortunately, malicious actors person attempted to usage the Eth2 misnomer to scam users by telling them they swap their ETH for “ETH2” tokens oregon that they indispensable “migrate” their ETH earlier the Eth2 upgrade.

We anticipation this updated terminology volition bring clarity to destruct this scam vector and assistance marque the ecosystem safer.

Staking clarity

Some staking operators person besides represented ETH staked connected the Beacon Chain with the ‘ETH2’ ticker. This creates imaginable confusion, fixed that users of these services are not really receiving an ‘ETH2’ token. No ‘ETH2’ token exists; it simply represents their stock successful that circumstantial providers’ stake.

How does this update alteration the Ethereum roadmap?

It doesn’t! It’s important to recognize that this renaming represents a alteration successful naming only. The features connected Ethereum’s existent roadmap (i.e. the merge, sharding) and aboriginal features volition inactive hap connected the aforesaid timeline. More connected the Ethereum upgrades.

Ethereum's upgrade path

ethereum.org

Content changes

The rebrand was a monolithic task with galore contented changes. There are apt instances we missed and improvements inactive to beryllium made. Notice thing that needs fixing? Raise an contented oregon unfastened a PR connected the ethereum.org GitHub.

Content translations

If you’re susceptible of translating content, we could usage your help! We’ve updated this contented successful English, but our 40+ further languages are present outdated and inactive notation Eth2 terminology. Please see getting involved.

We’ve updated our content buckets to see an Ethereum upgrades bucket. This volition empower our hundreds of progressive contributors to the Translation Program to straight people these changes to people the caller close accusation crossed languages much quickly.

Interested successful helping to translate ethereum.org? Check out our translation program.

A last note

To many, ethereum.org is seen arsenic a credible root of accusation maintained by our community. Understandably, galore didn’t privation to displacement distant from Eth2 terminology until ethereum.org did. We anticipation that our changes volition promote others to determination distant from the outdated Eth2 terminology. By doing so, you volition beryllium helping to make consistency and clarity crossed the ecosystem, allowing for much close intelligence models and making Ethereum much accessible.

Two bears merging into a Panda, representing upgraded Ethereum

Special acknowledgment to Tim Beiko and Trent Van Epps whose writings were heavy referenced successful this article.