Core developer Danny Ryan has submitted a proposal for the first and most critical phase of Ethereum 2.0, moving it closer to its launch.

The proposal, dubbed "Serenity Phase 0," is responsible for bringing about the highly anticipated proof-of-stake (POS) consensus mechanism—an efficient method for validating transactions on the Ethereum network. The new POS chain, known as the “Beacon Chain," will be built alongside Ethereum’s existing network in the coming months.

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The Road to Serenity

Phase 0 marks just one stage of a staggered 6-phase launch of Eth 2.0, with the latter phases expected to extend well into 2022.

Ethereum 2.0 is on the horizon (Image: Shutterstock)

Ethereum: the next five years

Since its launch on July 30, 2015, Ethereum has risen to become the second-biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalization—second only to Bitcoin. It was the first, and until quite recently, the only general-purpose blockchain, featuring a Turing-complete virtual machine and native programming language able to use code of any algorithmic intricacy. Five years after its launch, there are around 200,000 active developers building on Ethereum, with exciting developments such as decentralized finan...

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Rene Millman

The shipping of Phase 1, similarly pegged for a 2020 rollout, aims to introduce the sharding mechanism—a method of splitting data into multiple fragments, or shards,  with the result of lessening the load on the network.  Sharding is one of the primary motivations behind ETH 2.0, with hopes pinned on the novel space-saving approach solving Ethereum's scaling issue.

Currently within its Medalla testnet, a sandbox environment for testing the new protocol, ETH 2.0 will soon undergo further experimentation upon the Spadina public testnet. Running parallel to Medalla, Spadina's raison d'être is to allow developers to trial certain elements of ETH 2, including deposits and genesis, without disrupting dev momentum on Spadina.

With Phase 0 under deliberation and a multitude of tests underway, a November launch isn't looking so far fetched after all.

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