Vitalik Buterin presents proposal to accelerate the finality and irreversibility of transactions in Ethereum 2.0.
The irreversibility of transactions is one of the attributes with which blockchains guarantee security to users. In networks blockchain , the Bitcoin and Ethereum current, based on PoW, reaching this state in transactions takes about 15 minutes on average; a time that is considered common and quite acceptable within the industry.
However, for the future Ethereum, known as Ethereum 2.0 and called by the Ethereum Foundation as “the Ethereum consensus layer”, Vitalik Buterin raises the possibility of accelerating the transaction confirmation process and, with it, irreversibility.
The co-founder of Ethereum, who created the network when he was just 19, wrote about his new proposal on the Ethereum.org blog, noting that the completion time for transactions on Ethereum 2.0 can be reduced to an average of 12 seconds. The objective behind this acceleration is to ensure a better user experience for users, while reducing the possibility of a 51% attack, optimizing the security of the blockchain.
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New improvements for Ethereum 2.0
The proposal points out that it will be much more difficult and extremely costly for a malicious actor to execute an attack against the network if the irreversibility of transactions is achieved much more quickly.
In Ethereum 2.0, although the network's validators suggest and confirm blocks in 12-second windows, called slot, the chain requires about 64 slots (one epoch) to create a new block, whose hash is intertwined with the previous one, starting the true “chain of blocks” and the irreversibility of transactions. Reaching these 64 slots currently takes about 15 minutes, Buterin specified in his proposal.
User experience
As mentioned, accelerating the irreversibility of transactions will give a better user experience for users, they won't have to wait 15 minutes to be 100% sure that their transactions cannot be reversed if an attack were to occur.
Buterin noted that the development of blockchain technology has given room for the creation of other chains capable of offering true finality and irreversibility in their transactions in just 3-5 minutes, so for Ethereum 2.0 it is important to provide and ensure a high degree of security, at a speed to which users are increasingly accustomed.
More security and stability for ETH 2.0
On the other hand, the proposal indicates that Ethereum 2.0 will be able to increase its security and stability, if the finality and irreversibility of transactions is accelerated. The blockchain will be more resistant to block reorganization, since the finality in a slot (12 seconds) would make it unfeasible, even for a majority, to coordinate an attack on the network to reorganize the chain, explained Buterin. The possibility of reducing the complexity and errors of the protocol would be another advantage that would offer a much faster time to finality and irreversibility.
Gas fees, the real problem of Ethereum
Although one of the biggest concerns and problems that Ethereum faces today is the high Gas costs, Buterin made no mention of it in his new proposal. Many of the users of this chain have been blocked by the impossibility of assuming Ethereum commission fees, which currently average around $8 for simple transactions and between $24 and $60 for token exchanges. ERC-20 or operations from UniswapAccording Etherscan.
Source: Etherscan
Transaction fees on Ethereum have risen to previously unimaginable figures due to network congestion resulting from high demand for protocols. DeFi y NFTs; two spaces in the crypto world in which Ethereum continues to be a leader despite its problems.
A long road to Ethereum 2.0
Buterin pointed out that the idea of accelerating irreversibility in the transactions of the new Ethereum (Eth2) is just a proposal without a roadmap for its implementation, since as we well know, this blockchain is not yet finished. In addition, the developer specified that consolidating this proposal requires important changes to the Ethereum 2.0 protocol, such as the creation of “subgroups of validators”, “super committees” and changes to the Casper update, which replaces the Proof consensus protocol. of Work (PoW) for Proof of Stake (PoS) on Eth2.
Although Ethereum 2.0, or the Ethereum consensus layer, began development in 2018, it has faced countless obstacles that have delayed its arrival, possibly until 2023 or 2024. In May 2021, Buterin recognized that the lack of consensus among the development team has been one of the main reasons for the delay of Ethereum 2.0, as well as the complexity of the new technologies that they want to implement within this network, such as the sharding or fragmentation. However, the team working on this new blockchain continues to advance in its development. Danny Ryan, developer of Ethereum 2.0, indicated at the end of September that the arrival of the update Altair to the Beacon Chain brings the long-awaited merger between Eth1 and Eth2 even closer.
Despite the delay of Eth2 and the high costs of operating on Eth1, the chain continues to lead the crypto industry as the most used for the development of smart contracts, decentralized protocols, games and metaverses. In global markets, its native cryptocurrency, ETH, has emerged as the second most in-demand alternative investment asset after Bitcoin.
More than $25.000 billion in Eth2
At press time, ETH is trading on $2.620 per unit and maintains a market capitalization of more than $312.900 billion. Meanwhile, in Ethereum 2.0 there 287.296 active validators and 9.619.491 ETH deposited, valued at over $25.200 billion.
Continue reading: EIP-3675, the official improvement proposal for the merger of Ethereum and Ethereum 2.0
