- Ethereum 2.0 has been rebranded as the protocol’s “consensus layer”
- The name change has been made public to avoid confusion over the upgrade’s purpose
- Ethereum 1.0 and 2.0 will make up two parts of the Ethereum protocol
Ethereum developers have rebranded Ethereum 2.0 to the “consensus layer” of the protocol in a move to cement the notion that the upgrade will not replace Ethereum 1.0. Instead, Ethereum 1.0 will make up the “execution layer” of the protocol while Ethereum 2.0 will make up the “consensus layer”, with the two parts working together to form the Ethereum protocol as a whole.
Ethereum Upgrade is a Big Moment for Crypto
Ethereum’s upgrade isn’t just the biggest shift the protocol has seen in its six-and-a-half-year history, it’s also one of the biggest in the blockchain space, in particular due to its move from a proof-of-work to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism.
A blog post from Ethereum developers yesterday blog post acknowledged this, with the developers stating that the protocol is “undergoing significant changes” and that the protocol is being upgraded “to scale to meet global demand” and improve security.
Consensus Layer, Not 2.0
Referring to the upgrade as Ethereum 2.0 is wide of the mark however, according to the developers, given that what will emerge from the development chrysalis later this year will not be a whole new iteration of Ethereum but rather an upgrade of one half of it. They also included a handy illustration to back up their point:
The post adds that the development team itself has made a concerted effort to refer to the upgrade as “consensus layer” rather than Ethereum 2.0 since 2021, noting that the “Eth2 branding…creates a broken mental model for new users of Ethereum” in that they might think that Ethereum 2.0 is replacing Ethereum 1.0 when in fact they are both separate parts of the whole entity.
Whether this rebrand will catch on in the crypto community is hard to tell at this point, but as it is significantly less catchy we’d say…good luck.
