Ethereum 2.0 is hopeless in the short term, and unexpected complexity may delay "full launch" for several years

Ethereum is making progress, but the timetable for the full ETH 2.0 release is not approaching. According to a recent official blog post, we can expect "it will take many years before the full rollout of" Ethereum 2.0. "

With the latest hard fork update in Istanbul, many in the Ethereum community are passionate about the upcoming Ethereum 2.0. However, this enthusiasm fails to grasp the complexity of what the Ethereum developers are doing, which will cost them more time.

According to an overview of the most pressing issues facing Ethereum developers, ETH 2.0 (called "Serenity") is far from being fully implemented. The 1.x file: Quick Sync published on the Ethereum official blog shows that the development team is now focusing on more incremental upgrades to Ethereum 1.x. Research work is being broken down into smaller updates to ensure that the Ethereum original chain remains operational during this transition period.

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The article writes that the task now is to "extend the life of the Ethereum original chain by at least another 3-5 years, and then make a more significant upgrade to Serenity (ETH 2.0)."

What caused the delay?

The reasons for this "delay" are manifold and complex.

In this blog post, Griffin Ichiba Hotchkiss wrote about some of the core issues that are currently slowing developers down due to their severity. These issues include:

1. Chain storage
2. Block size and transaction throughput
3. State size and network performance

The team is still actively working on ways to address these issues.

All in all, since the original chain must remain alive, it is more difficult to migrate existing ETH 1.x to Serenity. If Ethereum restarts from Serenity, it will be an easier process. The need for incremental development of ETH 1.x will delay the full rollout of ETH 2.0 in the coming years.

In short, according to this Ethereum blog post, we can expect a complete ETH 2.0 to be launched in "many years", at least "in at least 3-5 years".

Although vague, this is the current timeline.

Ethereum 2.0 'Zero Phase' is still tentatively scheduled for the first quarter of 2020

Ethereum has not given a specific timetable for Ethereum 2.0 to a large extent, but many media reports have stated that in the first quarter of 2020, the tentative date of Ethereum 2.0 "zero stage".

Danny Ryan, a researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, told reporters in mid-November that the media spoke highly of this arbitrary date during a public call with the team. It's unclear whether this latest post from the Ethereum blog is related to the team's zero-phase plan to release Ethereum 2.0 in the first quarter of 2020.

It should be noted that the zero stage is still far from the full launch of Ethereum 2.0, and it is only the first step in a long process. This phase will bring staking and will introduce “ETH2coin” for the first time, but this asset cannot be withdrawn or transferred in this step. All participants who decide to staking at the zero stage will see their ETH1 burned in exchange for ETH2, but it will be effectively frozen until the next step.

The sharding and ETH2 trading functions will be implemented in the next stage. However, judging from the latest technical issues posted on the Ethereum blog, we may look forward to implementing sharding sometime in 2021.

As BeInCrypto previously reported, the transition to ETH 2.0 will inevitably involve the coexistence of two Ethereum chains and cryptocurrencies for a period of time. ETH 1.0 and 2.0 will have different prices and both will be traded on the exchange until the full version of ETH 2.0 is launched. For a globally leading smart contract platform, this period may prove to be a critical moment because it must prove that its upgrade is feasible for the entire market and the entire industry.

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