PoS is Coming? Ethereum 2.0 Testnet is Live

The Ethereum 2.0 Proof-of-Stake (PoS) testnet is now live! This testnet aims to be the updated version of the existing Ethereum Proof-of-Work (PoW) Blockchain, according to the post written by the Co-Founder of Prysmatic Labs, Preston Van Loon in Medium.

The newly developed Ethereum 2.0 is a new blockchain which means it will not be upgraded as hard fork on the current chain. Rather, the value will be transmitted to the current chain from the PoW chain through the one-way deposit smart contract.

The core concept of Ethereum 2.0 as said by Preston is the idea of shards, which means the management of smart contracts, state, and transaction by individual chains. These shards enable horizontal scalability of the system where transactions can be processed in parallel.

There are a number of features excluded in the testnet. For example, this network does not include smart contract and EVM-related functionality. Such functions will be a part of Phase 2 of Ethereum 2.0. Besides, this is not a multi-client network, and the construction of such network will be the next critical step for the developer team.