Ethereum developers working on Ethereum 1.x project to integrate Serenity update

 

As the Ethereum team moves towards implementing the next stage of the 2.0 evolution,the development team is constantly working to support the existing chain.

The project, called Ethereum 1.x, aims to maintain the usability of Ethereum (ETH) while working on the Serenity update.

History began with the awareness of the maindevelopers that the final stage of the Ethereum roadmap, Serenity, will not be ready as quickly as originally expected. Potentially many years before Ethereum 2.0 is fully deployed on the current network, changes will be required to ensure that larger issues do not render Ethereum unusable and are resolved before the protocol is fully upgraded, – noted on the Ethereum blog.

Despite the fact that there are no unsolvableproblems, the developers note a slight decrease in performance due to the constant growth in the size of the blockchain. Full nodes must download and process the entire history of Ethereum, which today weighs more than 200 gigabytes.

This figure increases by 10-15 GB monthly and leads to problems with node operation and network delays.

How Ethereum 1.x Solves Problems

Several solutions to this problem have been proposed. Reducing and removing unnecessary blockchain data can increase storage sizes, but is difficult to implement.

Ethereum 1.x brings the concept of “stateless clients” to the web. Instead of storing the entire state, clients simply compute changes to it compared to the previous block, using "block witnesses" to ensure validity. While some nodes still need to maintain all state, the benefits seem significant.

Note that Ethereum 1.x is developed under the full guidance of the Ethereum Foundation. But at the same time, the 1.x code base will remain separate from 2.0.

Cointelegraph sought clarificationto James Hancock, Project Team Coordinator 1.x. When asked about how the various phases of Ethereum 2.0 will interact with him, he explained:

The implemented phase 0 will still beuse Eth1.X as a separate code base. Phase 0 is a bridge, and although the transition between Eth1 and Eth2 will be implemented gradually, pay attention to the state of Ethereum contracts. In addition, there is the possibility of a controversial hard fork similar to the one that led to the creation of Ethereum Classic. But while this is possible, the 1.x team does not intend to create a separate chain.

As Hancock clarified, once Ethereum enters the 2.0 chain, it will become the mainstream version of the network.