This is a challenge, which has taken on a whole new importance with the rise in capitalization of tokens such as those of Cardano, Solana, Polkadot or Fantom. Ethereum must imperatively update to ETH 2.0, if it intends to remain central to DeFi, vehicle of smart contracts and currency of exchange of NFTs. a hard fork size has just been deployed this week. Called Altair, it is a bridge for cryptocurrency and its switch to the new ETH 2.0 protocol, scheduled for early next year.
Ethereum had already made good progress on August 5 during the London update. But Altair, his new hard fork rolled out this week, brings the blockchain closer to its future protocol with the upgrade of validation strings in proof-of-stake, which will allow the cryptocurrency to carry out more transactions per second and consume less energy. So much so that Ethereum marked a new historical record, reached over $ 4,400 that night.
© CoinMarketCap
ATH, et Ethereum « killers »
Driven by the Altair update and the boom in decentralized finance exchanges, Ethereum reached a capitalization of more than $ 512 billion, up 4.91% in the last 24 hours. But the “Ethereum killers” continue to perform and multiply. This is particularly the case with Fantom, a new token that attempts to use a whole new consensus mechanism to facilitate DeFi and associated services based on smart contracts. Translation: solve Ethereum’s problems, which the blockchain will not be able to solve before moving to ETH 2.0.
Not all “Ethereum killers” play on the same flaws of the world’s second largest cryptocurrency. Thus, Solana exploded during the summer thanks to its blockchain developed by Qualcomm, offering extraordinary speed in its transaction management. “It claims 50,000 transactions per second, when the Ethereum network can only provide 15 per second today and Bitcoin only 7”, Julien Moreto, analyst at a cryptocurrency broker, told Business Insider. “Like Ethereum, Cardano and Solana fall into the category of ‘infrastructure’ blockchains”, he added.
ETH 2.0: the merge “The Merge” in 2022
But as our brothers and sisters of Cryptonaute, these Ethereum competitors will still have to persuade that they have the shoulders to manage volumes as large as those of Ethereum, which has become the “default cryptocurrency” in decentralized finance exchanges. ETH 2.0 is not very far from being launched, according to its developers. “Altair has introduced two main changes”, confided developer Paul Hauner. “The Altair upgrade will give us valuable experience to ensure The Merge runs smoothly when it is ready for deployment in 2022,” added Ben Edgington, also a developer, on his blog.
When can we expect this merger, known in the trade as “The Merge”? According to Ethereum Foundation Community Manager Tim Beiko, the delay could take four months after the new code design is complete and deployment. This could most certainly lead us between the month of May and June 2022. At this point, the task will be far from easy. For a certain period of time, it will no longer be possible to mine Ether, which the developers call “Arrow Glacier”. And all infrastructure providers will have to coordinate to achieve the metamorphosis of the proof-of-stake consensus algorithm, the sinews of ETH 2.0.
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I am a technology author with 8 years of experience in journalism. My writing covers the latest technology advancements and trends, drawing on my expertise in news journalism and social media platforms. I have contributed to major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Reuters.
