diff --git a/src/content/developers/docs/accounts/index.md b/src/content/developers/docs/accounts/index.md index 7bd4495f0e0..11af93f62b5 100644 --- a/src/content/developers/docs/accounts/index.md +++ b/src/content/developers/docs/accounts/index.md @@ -97,12 +97,6 @@ Example: The contract address is usually given when a contract is deployed to the Ethereum Blockchain. The address comes from the creator's address and the number of transactions sent from that address (the “nonce”). -## Validator keys {#validators-keys} - -There is also another type of key in Ethereum, introduced when Ethereum switched from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake based consensus. These are 'BLS' keys and they are used to identify validators. These keys can be efficiently aggregated to reduce the bandwidth required for the network to come to consensus. Without this key aggregation the minimum stake for a validator would be much higher. - -[More on validator keys](/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pos/keys/). - ## A note on wallets {#a-note-on-wallets} An account is not a wallet. An account is the keypair for a user-owned Ethereum account. A wallet is an interface or application that lets you interact with your Ethereum account. diff --git a/src/content/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/index.md b/src/content/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/index.md index 7af78499c9e..1388f221c70 100644 --- a/src/content/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/index.md +++ b/src/content/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/index.md @@ -5,9 +5,7 @@ lang: en sidebar: true --- -When it comes to blockchains like Ethereum, which are, in essence, distributed databases, the network's nodes must reach an agreement on the network's current state. This agreement is achieved using consensus mechanisms. - -Although consensus mechanisms aren't directly related to building a dapp, understanding them will illuminate concepts relevant to you and your users' experience, like gas prices and transaction times. +The term 'consensus mechanism' is often used colloquially to refer to 'proof-of-stake', 'proof-of-work' or 'proof-of-authority' protocols. However, these are just components in consensus mechanisms that protect against Sybil attacks. Consensus mechanisms are the complete stack of ideas, protocols and incentives that enable a distributed set of nodes to agree on the state of a blockchain. ## Prerequisites {#prerequisites} @@ -15,31 +13,31 @@ To better understand this page, we recommend you first read our [introduction to ## What is consensus? {#what-is-consensus} -By consensus, we mean that a general agreement has been reached. Consider a group of people going to the cinema. If there is not a disagreement on a proposed choice of film, then a consensus is achieved. In the extreme case the group will eventually split. +By consensus, we mean that a general agreement has been reached. Consider a group of people going to the cinema. If there is no disagreement on a proposed choice of film, then a consensus is achieved. If there is disagreement, the group must have the means to decide which film to see. In extreme cases, the group will eventually split. -In regards to blockchain, the process is formalized, and reaching consensus means that at least 51% of the nodes on the network agree on the next global state of the network. +In regards to the Ethereum blockchain, the process is formalized, and reaching consensus means that at least 66% of the nodes on the network agree on the global state of the network. ## What is a consensus mechanism? {#what-is-a-consensus-mechanism} -Consensus mechanisms (also known as consensus protocols or consensus algorithms) allow distributed systems (networks of computers) to work together and stay secure. +The term consensus mechanism refers to the entire stack of protocols, incentives and ideas that allow a network of nodes to agree on the state of a blockchain. -Consensus protocols and consensus algorithms are often used interchangeably. However, protocols and algorithms are different. A protocol is a set of rules defined in a standard that governs how a system and its many functioning parts operate and interact. Algorithms are like exact recipes on how to solve a problem or calculate a result. +Ethereum uses a proof-of-stake-based consensus mechanism that derives its crypto-economic security from a set of rewards and penalties applied to capital locked by stakers. This incentive structure encourages individual stakers to operate honest validators, punishes those who don't, and creates an extremely high cost to attack the network. -For decades, these mechanisms have been used to establish consensus among database nodes, application servers, and other enterprise infrastructure. In recent years, new consensus mechanisms have been invented to allow cryptoeconomic systems, such as Ethereum, to agree on the state of the network. +Then, there is a protocol that governs how honest validators are selected to propose or validate blocks, process transactions and vote for their view of the head of the chain. In the rare situations where multiple blocks are in the same position near the head of the chain, there is a fork-choice mechanism that selects blocks that make up the 'heaviest' chain, measured by the number of validators that voted for the blocks weighted by their staked ether balance. -A consensus mechanism in a cryptoeconomic system also helps prevent certain kinds of economic attacks. In theory, an attacker can compromise consensus by controlling 51% of the network. Consensus mechanisms are designed to make this "51% attack" unfeasible. Different mechanisms are engineered to solve this security problem in different ways. +Some concepts are important to consensus that are not explicitly defined in code, such as the additional security offered by potential out-of-band social coordination as a last line of defense against attacks on the network. - +These components together form the consensus mechanism. ## Types of consensus mechanisms {#types-of-consensus-mechanisms} -### Proof-of-work {#proof-of-work} +### Proof-of-work based {#proof-of-work} -Ethereum, like Bitcoin, currently uses a **proof-of-work (PoW)** consensus protocol. +Like Bitcoin, Ethereum once used a **proof-of-work (PoW)** based consensus protocol. #### Block creation {#pow-block-creation} -Proof-of-work is done by [miners](/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pow/mining/), who compete to create new blocks full of processed transactions. The winner shares the new block with the rest of the network and earns some freshly minted ETH. The race is won by the computer which is able to solve a math puzzle fastest – this produces the cryptographic link between the current block and the block that went before. Solving this puzzle is the work in "proof-of-work". +Validators create blocks. One validator is randomly selected in each slot to be the block proposer. Their consensus client requests a bundle of transactions as an 'execution payload' from their paired execution client. They wrap this in consensus data to form a block, which they send to other nodes on the Ethereum network. This block production is rewarded in ETH. In rare cases when multiple possible blocks exist for a single slot, or nodes hear about blocks at different times, the fork choice algorithm picks the block that forms the chain with the greatest weight of attestations (where weight is the number of validators attesting scaled by their ETH balance). #### Security {#pow-security} @@ -47,9 +45,9 @@ The network is kept secure by the fact that you'd need 51% of the network's comp More on [proof-of-work](/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pow/) -### Proof-of-stake {#proof-of-stake} +### Proof-of-stake based {#proof-of-stake} -Ethereum plans to upgrade to a **proof-of-stake (PoS)** consensus protocol. +Ethereum now uses a **proof-of-stake (PoS)** based consensus protocol. #### Block creation {#pos-block-creation} @@ -57,7 +55,7 @@ Proof-of-stake is done by validators who have staked ETH to participate in the s #### Security {#pos-security} -A proof-of-stake system is kept secure by the fact that you'd need 51% of the total staked ETH to defraud the chain. And that your stake is slashed for malicious behaviour. +A proof-of-stake system is secure crypto-economically because an attacker attempting to take control of the chain must destroy a massive amount of ETH. A system of rewards incentivizes individual stakers to behave honestly, and penalties disincentivize stakers from acting maliciously. More on [proof-of-stake](/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pos/) @@ -69,15 +67,13 @@ Watch more on the different types of consensus mechanisms used on Ethereum: ### Sybil resistance & chain selection {#sybil-chain} -Now technically, proof-of-work and proof-of-stake are not consensus protocols by themselves, but they are often referred to as such for simplicity. They are actually Sybil resistance mechanisms and block author selectors; they are a way to decide who is the author of the latest block. It's this Sybil resistance mechanism combined with a chain selection rule that makes up a true consensus mechanism. +Proof-of-work and proof-of-stake alone are not consensus protocols, but they are often referred to as such for simplicity. They are actually Sybil resistance mechanisms and block author selectors; they are a way to decide who is the author of the latest block. Another important component is the chain selection (aka fork choice) algorithm that enables nodes to pick one single correct block at the head of the chain in scenarios where multiple blocks exist in the same position. **Sybil resistance** measures how a protocol fares against a [Sybil attack](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Sybil_attack). Sybil attacks are when one user or group pretends to be many users. Resistance to this type of attack is essential for a decentralized blockchain and enables miners and validators to be rewarded equally based on resources put in. Proof-of-work and proof-of-stake protect against this by making users expend a lot of energy or put up a lot of collateral. These protections are an economic deterrent to Sybil attacks. -A **chain selection rule** is used to decide which chain is the "correct" chain. Ethereum and Bitcoin currently use the "longest chain" rule, which means that whichever blockchain is the longest will be the one the rest of the nodes accept as valid and work with. For proof-of-work chains, the longest chain is determined by the chain's total cumulative proof-of-work difficulty. - -The combination of proof-of-work and longest chain rule is known as "Nakamoto Consensus." +A **chain selection rule** is used to decide which chain is the "correct" chain. Bitcoin uses the "longest chain" rule, which means that whichever blockchain is the longest will be the one the rest of the nodes accept as valid and work with. For proof-of-work chains, the longest chain is determined by the chain's total cumulative proof-of-work difficulty. Ethereum used to use the longest chain rule too; however, now that Etheruem runs on proof-of-stake it adopted an updated fork-choice algorithm that measures the 'weight' of the chain. The weight is the accumulated sum of validator votes, weighted by validator staked-ether balances. -The [Beacon Chain](/upgrades/beacon-chain/) uses a consensus mechanism called [Casper the Friendly Finality Gadget](https://arxiv.org/abs/1710.09437), which is proof-of-stake based. +Ethereum uses a consensus mechanism known as [Gasper](/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pos/gasper/) that combines [Casper FFG proof-of-stake](https://arxiv.org/abs/1710.09437) with the [GHOST fork-choice rule](https://arxiv.org/abs/2003.03052). ## Further reading {#further-reading} diff --git a/src/content/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pow/index.md b/src/content/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pow/index.md index 49694e7776b..48a81da0d12 100644 --- a/src/content/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pow/index.md +++ b/src/content/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pow/index.md @@ -3,12 +3,13 @@ title: Proof-of-work (PoW) description: An explanation of the proof-of-work consensus protocol and its role in Ethereum. lang: en sidebar: true -incomplete: true --- -Ethereum, like Bitcoin, currently uses a consensus protocol called **[Proof-of-work (PoW)](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof_of_work)**. This allows the nodes of the Ethereum network to agree on the state of all information recorded on the Ethereum blockchain and prevents certain kinds of economic attacks. +The Ethereum network began by using a consensus mechanism that involved **[Proof-of-work (PoW)](/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pow)**. This allowed the nodes of the Ethereum network to agree on the state of all information recorded on the Ethereum blockchain and prevented certain kinds of economic attacks. However, Ethereum switched off proof-of-work in 2022 and started using [proof-of-stake](/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pos) instead. -Over the next year, proof-of-work will be phased out in favour of **[Proof-of-stake (PoS)](/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pos)**. The transition to proof-of-stake will also phase out mining from Ethereum. [More on The Merge.](/upgrades/merge/) + + Proof-of-work has now been deprecated. Ethereum no longer uses proof-of-work as part of its consensus mechanism. Instead, it uses proof-of-stake. Read more on proof-of-stake and staking. + ## Prerequisites {#prerequisites} @@ -16,63 +17,59 @@ To better understand this page, we recommend you first read up on [transactions] ## What is Proof-of-work (PoW)? {#what-is-pow} -Proof-of-work is the mechanism that allows the decentralized Ethereum network to come to consensus, or agree on things like account balances and the order of transactions. This prevents users from "double spending" their coins and ensures that the Ethereum chain is tremendously difficult to attack or manipulate. +Nakamoto consensus, which utilizes proof-of-work, is the mechanism that once allowed the decentralized Ethereum network to come to consensus (i.e. all nodes agree) on things like account balances and the order of transactions. This prevented users from "double spending" their coins and ensured that the Ethereum chain was tremendously difficult to attack or manipulate. These security properties now come from proof-of-stake instead using the consensus mechanism known as [Gasper](/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pos/gasper/). ## Proof-of-work and mining {#pow-and-mining} -Proof-of-work is the underlying algorithm that sets the difficulty and rules for the work miners do. Mining is the "work" itself. It's the act of adding valid blocks to the chain. This is important because the chain's length helps the network follow the correct Ethereum chain and understand Ethereum's current state. The more "work" done, the longer the chain, and the higher the block number, the more certain the network can be of the current state of things. +Proof-of-work is the underlying algorithm that sets the difficulty and rules for the work miners do on proof-of-work blockchains. Mining is the "work" itself. It's the act of adding valid blocks to the chain. This is important because the chain's length helps the network follow the correct fork of the blockchain. The more "work" done, the longer the chain, and the higher the block number, the more certain the network can be of the current state of things. [More on mining](/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pow/mining/) -## How does Ethereum's proof-of-work work? {#how-it-works} +## How did Ethereum's proof-of-work work? {#how-it-works} -Ethereum transactions are processed into blocks. Each block has a: +Ethereum transactions are processed into blocks. In the now-deprecated proof-of-work Ethereum, each block contained: - block difficulty – for example: 3,324,092,183,262,715 - mixHash – for example: `0x44bca881b07a6a09f83b130798072441705d9a665c5ac8bdf2f39a3cdf3bee29` - nonce – for example: `0xd3ee432b4fb3d26b` -This block data is directly related to proof-of-work. +This block data was directly related to proof-of-work. ### The work in proof-of-work {#the-work} -The proof-of-work protocol, Ethash, requires miners to go through an intense race of trial and error to find the nonce for a block. Only blocks with a valid nonce can be added to the chain. +The proof-of-work protocol, Ethash, required miners to go through an intense race of trial and error to find the nonce for a block. Only blocks with a valid nonce could be added to the chain. -When racing to create a block, a miner will repeatedly put a dataset, that you can only get from downloading and running the full chain (as a miner does), through a mathematical function. The dataset gets used to generate a mixHash below a target nonce, as dictated by the block difficulty. The best way to do this is through trial and error. +When racing to create a block, a miner repeatedly put a dataset, that could only be obtained by downloading and running the full chain (as a miner does), through a mathematical function. The dataset was used to generate a mixHash below a target that is dictated by the block difficulty. The best way to do this is through trial and error. -The difficulty determines the target for the hash. The lower the target, the smaller the set of valid hashes. Once generated, this is incredibly easy for other miners and clients to verify. Even if one transaction were to change, the hash would be completely different, signalling fraud. +The difficulty determined the target for the hash. The lower the target, the smaller the set of valid hashes. Once generated, this was incredibly easy for other miners and clients to verify. Even if one transaction were to change, the hash would be completely different, signalling fraud. -Hashing makes fraud easy to spot. But proof-of-work as a process is also a big deterrent to attacking the chain. +Hashing makes fraud easy to spot. But proof-of-work as a process was also a big deterrent to attacking the chain. ### Proof-of-work and security {#security} -Miners are incentivised to do this work on the main Ethereum chain. There is little incentive for a subset of miners to start their own chain – it undermines the system. Blockchains rely on having a single state as a source of truth. And users will always choose the longest or "heaviest" chain. +Miners were incentivized to do this work on the main Ethereum chain. There was little incentive for a subset of miners to start their own chain—it undermines the system. Blockchains rely on having a single state as a source of truth. -The objective of proof-of-work is to extend the chain. The longest chain is most believable as the valid one because it's had the most computational work done. Within Ethereum's PoW system, it's nearly impossible to create new blocks that erase transactions, create fake ones, or maintain a second chain. That's because a malicious miner would need to always solve the block nonce faster than everyone else. +The objective of proof-of-work was to extend the chain. The longest chain was most believable as the valid one because it had the most computational work done to generate it. Within Ethereum's PoW system, it was nearly impossible to create new blocks that erase transactions, create fake ones, or maintain a second chain. That's because a malicious miner would have needed to always solve the block nonce faster than everyone else. -To consistently create malicious yet valid blocks, you'd need over 51% of the network mining power to beat everyone else. You'd need a lot of computing power to be able to do this amount of "work". And the energy spent might even outweigh the gains you'd make in an attack. +To consistently create malicious yet valid blocks, a malicious miner would have needed over 51% of the network mining power to beat everyone else. That amount of "work" requires a lot of expensive computing power and the energy spent might even have outweighed the gains made in an attack. ### Proof-of-work economics {#economics} -Proof-of-work is also responsible for issuing new currency into the system and incentivizing miners to do the work. +Proof-of-work was also responsible for issuing new currency into the system and incentivizing miners to do the work. -Miners who successfully create a block get rewarded with two freshly minted ETH but no longer receive all the transaction fees, as the base fee gets burned, while the tip and block reward goes to the miner. A miner may also get 1.75 ETH for an uncle block. Uncle blocks are valid blocks created by a miner practically at the same time as another miner mined the successful block. Uncle blocks usually happen due to network latency. +Since the [Constantinople upgrade](/history/#constantinople), miners who successfully create a block were rewarded with two freshly minted ETH and part of the transaction fees. Ommer blocks also compensated 1.75 ETH. Ommer blocks were valid blocks created by a miner practically at the same time as another miner created the canonical block, which was ultimately determined by which chain was built on top of first. Ommer blocks usually happened due to network latency. ## Finality {#finality} A transaction has "finality" on Ethereum when it's part of a block that can't change. -Because miners work in a decentralized way, two valid blocks can get mined at the same time. This creates a temporary fork. Eventually, one of these chains will become the accepted chain after a subsequent block has been mined and added, making it longer. +Because miners worked in a decentralized way, two valid blocks could be mined at the same time. This creates a temporary fork. Eventually, one of these chains became the accepted chain after subsequent blocks were mined and added to it, making it longer. -But to complicate things further, transactions rejected on the temporary fork may have been included in the accepted chain. This means it could get reversed. So finality refers to the time you should wait before considering a transaction irreversible. For Ethereum, the recommended time is six blocks or just over 1 minute. After six blocks, you can say with relative confidence that the transaction was successful. You can wait longer for even greater assurances. - -Finality is something to bear in mind when designing dapps. It would be a poor user experience to misrepresent transaction information to your users, especially if the transaction is of high value. - -Remember, this timing doesn't include the wait times for having a transaction picked up by a miner. +To complicate things further, transactions rejected on the temporary fork may not have been included in the accepted chain. This means it could get reversed. So finality refers to the time you should wait before considering a transaction irreversible. Under the previous proof-of-work Ethereum, the more blocks were mined on top of a specific block `N`, the higher confidence that the transactions in `N` were successful and would not be reverted. Now, with proof-of-stake, finalization is an explicit, rather than probabilistic, property of a block. ## Proof-of-work energy-usage {#energy} -A major criticism of proof-of-work is the amount of energy output required to keep the network safe. To maintain security and decentralization, Ethereum on proof-of-work consumes 73.2 TWh annually, the energy equivalent of a medium-sized country like Austria. +A major criticism of proof-of-work is the amount of energy output required to keep the network safe. To maintain security and decentralization, Ethereum on proof-of-work consumed large amounts of energy. Shortly before switching to proof-of-stake, Ethereum miners were collectively consuming about 70 TWh/yr (about the same as the Czech Republic - according to [digiconomist](digiconomist.net) on 18-July-2022). ## Pros and cons {#pros-and-cons} diff --git a/src/content/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pow/mining-algorithms/ethash/index.md b/src/content/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pow/mining-algorithms/ethash/index.md index b937f7ea659..22a6ee8230f 100644 --- a/src/content/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pow/mining-algorithms/ethash/index.md +++ b/src/content/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pow/mining-algorithms/ethash/index.md @@ -5,9 +5,15 @@ lang: en sidebar: true --- -**Note that Ethash is Ethereum's proof-of-work mining algorithm. Proof-of-work mining will be switched off completely at [The Merge](/upgrades/merge) at which point Ethereum will be secured using a [proof-of-stake](/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pos) mechanism instead.** + + Ethash was Ethereum's proof-of-work mining algorithm. Proof-of-work has now been **switched off entirely** and Ethereum is now secured using [proof-of-stake](/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pos) instead. Read more on The Merge, proof-of-stake and staking. This page is for historical interest! + -[Ethash](https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/Ethash) is a modified version of the [Dagger-Hashimoto](/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pow/mining-algorithms/dagger-hashamoto) algorithm. Ethash proof-of-work is [memory hard](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory-hard_function), which was thought to make the algorithm ASIC resistant, but ASIC Ethash-mining has since been shown to be possible. Memory hardness is achieved with a proof of work algorithm that requires choosing subsets of a fixed resource dependent on the nonce and block header. This resource (a few gigabytes in size) is called a DAG. The DAG is changed every 30000 blocks, a 125-hour window called an epoch (roughly 5.2 days) and takes a while to generate. Since the DAG only depends on block height, it can be pre-generated but if it's not, the client needs to wait until the end of this process to produce a block. If clients do not pre-generate and cache DAGs ahead of time the network may experience massive block delay on each epoch transition. Note that the DAG does not need to be generated for verifying the proof-of-work essentially allowing for verification with both low CPU and small memory. +[Ethash](https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/Ethash) is a modified version of the [Dagger-Hashimoto](/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pow/mining-algorithms/dagger-hashamoto) algorithm. Ethash proof-of-work is [memory hard](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory-hard_function), which was thought to make the algorithm ASIC resistant. Ethash ASICs were eventually developed but GPU mining was still a viable option until proof-of-work was switched off. Ethash is still used to mine other coins on other non-Ethereum proof-of-work networks. + +## How does Ethash work? {#how-does-ethash-work} + +Memory hardness is achieved with a proof of work algorithm that requires choosing subsets of a fixed resource dependent on the nonce and block header. This resource (a few gigabytes in size) is called a DAG. The DAG is changed every 30000 blocks, a ~125-hour window called an epoch (roughly 5.2 days) and takes a while to generate. Since the DAG only depends on block height, it can be pre-generated, but if it's not the client needs to wait until the end of this process to produce a block. If clients do not pre-generate and cache DAGs ahead of time the network may experience massive block delay on each epoch transition. Note that the DAG does not need to be generated for verifying the proof-of-work essentially allowing for verification with both low CPU and small memory. The general route that the algorithm takes is as follows: diff --git a/src/content/developers/docs/dapps/index.md b/src/content/developers/docs/dapps/index.md index dbe336e3137..5275cdc09e4 100644 --- a/src/content/developers/docs/dapps/index.md +++ b/src/content/developers/docs/dapps/index.md @@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ A smart contract is code that lives on the Ethereum blockchain and runs exactly ## Drawbacks of dapp development {#drawbacks-of-dapp-development} - **Maintenance** – Dapps can be harder to maintain because the code and data published to the blockchain are harder to modify. It’s hard for developers to make updates to their dapps (or the underlying data stored by a dapp) once they are deployed, even if bugs or security risks are identified in an old version. -- **Performance overhead** – There is a huge performance overhead, and scaling is really hard. To achieve the level of security, integrity, transparency, and reliability that Ethereum aspires to, every node runs and stores every transaction. On top of this, proof-of-work takes time as well. A back-of-the-envelope calculation puts the overhead at something like 1,000,000x that of standard computation currently. +- **Performance overhead** – There is a huge performance overhead, and scaling is really hard. To achieve the level of security, integrity, transparency, and reliability that Ethereum aspires to, every node runs and stores every transaction. On top of this, proof-of-stake consensus takes time as well. - **Network congestion** – When one dapp uses too many computational resources, the entire network gets backed up. Currently, the network can only process about 10-15 transactions per second; if transactions are being sent in faster than this, the pool of unconfirmed transactions can quickly balloon. - **User experience** – It may be harder to engineer user-friendly experiences because the average end-user might find it too difficult to set up a tool stack necessary to interact with the blockchain in a truly secure fashion. - **Centralization** – User-friendly and developer-friendly solutions built on top of the base layer of Ethereum might end up looking like centralized services anyways. For example, such services may store keys or other sensitive information server-side, serve a frontend using a centralized server, or run important business logic on a centralized server before writing to the blockchain. Centralization eliminates many (if not all) of the advantages of blockchain over the traditional model. diff --git a/src/content/developers/docs/gas/index.md b/src/content/developers/docs/gas/index.md index 94a73a1cdec..29d5e01ca70 100644 --- a/src/content/developers/docs/gas/index.md +++ b/src/content/developers/docs/gas/index.md @@ -33,30 +33,16 @@ In the transaction, the gas limit is 21,000 units, and the gas price is 200 gwei Total fee would have been: `Gas units (limit) * Gas price per unit` i.e `21,000 * 200 = 4,200,000 gwei` or 0.0042 ETH -When Alice sent the money, 1.0042 ETH would be deducted from Alice's account. -Bob would be credited 1.0000 ETH. -Miner would receive 0.0042 ETH. - -This video offers a concise overview of gas and why it exists: - - +Let's say Jordan has to pay Taylor 1 ETH. In the transaction, the gas limit is 21,000 units and the base fee is 10 gwei. Jordan includes a tip of 2 gwei. ## After the London upgrade {#post-london} -[The London Upgrade](/history/#london) was implemented on August 5th, 2021, to make transacting on Ethereum more predictable for users by overhauling Ethereum's transaction-fee-mechanism. The high-level benefits introduced by this change include better transaction fee estimation, generally quicker transaction inclusion, and offsetting the ETH issuance by burning a percentage of transaction fees. - -Starting with the London network upgrade, every block has a base fee, the minimum price per unit of gas for inclusion in this block, calculated by the network based on demand for block space. As the base fee of the transaction fee is burnt, users are also expected to set a tip (priority fee) in their transactions. The tip compensates miners for executing and propagating user transactions in blocks and is expected to be set automatically by most wallets. - -Calculating the total transaction fee works as follows: `Gas units (limit) * (Base fee + Tip)` - -Let's say Jordan has to pay Taylor 1 ETH. In the transaction, the gas limit is 21,000 units and the base fee is 100 gwei. Jordan includes a tip of 10 gwei. - -Using the formula above we can calculate this as `21,000 * (100 + 10) = 2,310,000 gwei` or 0.00231 ETH. +`21,000 * (10 + 2) = 252,000 gwei` or 0.000252 ETH. -When Jordan sends the money, 1.00231 ETH will be deducted from Jordan's account. +When Jordan sends the money, 1.000252 ETH will be deducted from Jordan's account. Taylor will be credited 1.0000 ETH. -Miner receives the tip of 0.00021 ETH. -Base fee of 0.0021 ETH is burned. +Validator receives the tip of 0.000042 ETH. +Base fee of 0.00021 ETH is burned. Additionally, Jordan can also set a max fee (`maxFeePerGas`) for the transaction. The difference between the max fee and the actual fee is refunded to Jordan, i.e. `refund = max fee - (base fee + priority fee)`. Jordan can set a maximum amount to pay for the transaction to execute and not worry about overpaying "beyond" the base fee when the transaction is executed. diff --git a/src/content/developers/docs/intro-to-ether/index.md b/src/content/developers/docs/intro-to-ether/index.md index e0d4a255bb2..8b72d2eeaba 100644 --- a/src/content/developers/docs/intro-to-ether/index.md +++ b/src/content/developers/docs/intro-to-ether/index.md @@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ It is [common](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-crypto-currencies-lending-insi Minting is the process in which new ether gets created on the Ethereum ledger. The underlying Ethereum protocol creates the new ether, and it is not possible for a user to create ether. -Ether is minted when a new block is created on the Ethereum blockchain. As an incentive to build blocks, the protocol grants a reward in each block, incrementing the balance of an address set by the block producer. The block reward has changed over time, and today it is 2 ETH per block. After the merge issuance to each validator depends upon the amount of ether they have staked and their performance. +Ether is minted as a reward for each block proposed and at every epoch checkpoint for other validator activity related to reaching consensus. The total amount issued depends on the number of validators and how much ether they have staked. This total issuance is divided equally among validators in the ideal case that all validators are honest and online, but in reality, it varies based on validator performance. About 1/8 of the total issuance goes to the block proposer; the remainder is distributed across the other validators. Block proposers also receive tips from transaction fees and MEV-related income, but these come from recycled ether, not new issuance. ## Burning ether {#burning-ether} diff --git a/src/content/developers/docs/intro-to-ethereum/index.md b/src/content/developers/docs/intro-to-ethereum/index.md index c53ca51325f..2f54854b5c6 100644 --- a/src/content/developers/docs/intro-to-ethereum/index.md +++ b/src/content/developers/docs/intro-to-ethereum/index.md @@ -16,15 +16,8 @@ A blockchain is a public database that is updated and shared across many compute Every computer in the network must agree upon each new block and the chain as a whole. These computers are known as "nodes". Nodes ensure everyone interacting with the blockchain has the same data. To accomplish this distributed agreement, blockchains need a consensus mechanism. -Ethereum currently uses a [proof-of-work](/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pow/) consensus mechanism. This means that anyone who wants to add new blocks to the chain must solve a difficult puzzle that requires a lot of computing power. Solving the puzzle "proves" that you have done the "work" by using computational resources. Doing this is known as [mining](/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pow/mining/). Mining is typically brute force trial and error, but successfully adding a block is rewarded in ETH. +Ethereum uses a [proof-of-stake-based consensus mechanism](/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pos/). Anyone who wants to add new blocks to the chain must stake at least 32 ETH into the deposit contract and run validator software. They then can be randomly selected to propose blocks that other validators check and add to the blockchain. In this model, there is usually only one chain, but network latency and dishonest behavior can cause multiple blocks to exist at the same position near the head of the chain. To resolve this, a fork-choice algorithm selects one canonical set of blocks. The blocks selected are the ones that form the heaviest possible chain, where 'heavy' refers to the number of validators that have endorsed the blocks (weighted by the ETH they have staked). There is a system of rewards and penalties that strongly incentivize participants to be honest and online as much as possible. -New blocks are broadcast to the nodes in the network, checked and verified, thus updating the state of the blockchain for everyone. - -So to summarize, when you send ETH to someone, the transaction must be added to the block which will get mined. The updated state is then shared with the entire network. - -Watch Austin walk you through blockchains: - - If you want to see how blockchain hashes data and then the previous block references all the past blocks, be sure to check out [this demo](https://andersbrownworth.com/blockchain/blockchain) by Anders Brownworth and watch the accompanying video below. @@ -34,6 +27,8 @@ Watch Anders explain hashes in blockchains: ## What is Ethereum? {#what-is-ethereum} +Ethereum is a blockchain with a computer embedded in it. It is the foundation for building apps and organizations in a decentralized, permissionless, censorship-resistant way. + In the Ethereum universe, there is a single, canonical computer (called the Ethereum Virtual Machine, or EVM) whose state everyone on the Ethereum network agrees on. Everyone who participates in the Ethereum network (every Ethereum node) keeps a copy of the state of this computer. Additionally, any participant can broadcast a request for this computer to perform arbitrary computation. Whenever such a request is broadcast, other participants on the network verify, validate, and carry out ("execute") the computation. This execution causes a state change in the EVM, which is committed and propagated throughout the entire network. Requests for computation are called transaction requests; the record of all transactions and the EVM's present state gets stored on the blockchain, which in turn is stored and agreed upon by all nodes. @@ -42,11 +37,13 @@ Cryptographic mechanisms ensure that once transactions are verified as valid and ## What is ether? {#what-is-ether} -**Ether (ETH)** is the native cryptocurrency of Ethereum. The purpose of ether is to allow for a market for computation. Such a market provides an economic incentive for participants to verify and execute transaction requests and provide computational resources to the network. +**Ether (ETH)** is the native cryptocurrency of Ethereum. The purpose of ETH is to allow for a market for computation. Such a market provides an economic incentive for participants to verify and execute transaction requests and provide computational resources to the network. + +Any participant who broadcasts a transaction request must also offer some amount of ETH to the network as a bounty. The network will award this bounty to whoever eventually does the work of verifying the transaction, executing it, committing it to the blockchain, and broadcasting it to the network. -Any participant who broadcasts a transaction request must also offer some amount of ether to the network as a bounty. This bounty will be awarded to whoever eventually does the work of verifying the transaction, executing it, committing it to the blockchain, and broadcasting it to the network. +The amount of ETH paid corresponds to the time required to do the computation. These bounties also prevent malicious participants from intentionally clogging the network by requesting the execution of infinite computation or other resource-intensive scripts, as these participants must pay for computation time. -The amount of ether paid corresponds to the time required to do the computation. These bounties also prevent malicious participants from intentionally clogging the network by requesting the execution of infinite computation or other resource-intensive scripts, as these participants must pay for computation time. +ETH is also used to provide crypto-economic security to the network in three main ways: 1) it is used as a means to reward validators who propose blocks or call out dishonest behavior by other validators; 2) It is staked by validators, acting as collateral against dishonest behavior—if validators attempt to misbehave their ETH can be destroyed; 3) it is used to weight 'votes' for newly proposed blocks, feeding into the fork-choice part of the consensus mechanism. ## What are smart contracts? {#what-are-smart-contracts} diff --git a/src/content/developers/docs/networks/index.md b/src/content/developers/docs/networks/index.md index bbd409ec25e..a909353079e 100644 --- a/src/content/developers/docs/networks/index.md +++ b/src/content/developers/docs/networks/index.md @@ -30,15 +30,27 @@ In addition to Mainnet, there are public testnets. These are networks used by pr You should test any contract code you write on a testnet before deploying to Mainnet. Among dapps that integrate with existing smart contracts, most projects have copies deployed to testnets. -Most testnets use a proof-of-authority consensus mechanism. This means a small number of nodes are chosen to validate transactions and create new blocks – staking their identity in the process. Testnets do not incentivize proof-of-work mining, which can leave them vulnerable. - -As [The Merge](/upgrades/merge) get closer more of the public proof-of-work and proof-of-authority testnets are becoming proof-of-stake. Swapping their consensus mechanisms acts as rehearsals for the Ethereum Mainnet merge. Ropsten, Sepolia and Goerli are all expected to be proof-of-stake networks by the end of summer 2022, with Goerli being maintained long term. +Most testnets started by using a proof-of-authority consensus mechanism. This means a small number of nodes are chosen to validate transactions and create new blocks – staking their identity in the process. Alternatively, some testnets started off using a proof-of-work consensus mechanism with just a few permissioned miners. However, in preparation for [The Merge](/upgrades/merge), these testnets underwent their own transitions to proof-of-stake, offering the opportunity for multiple 'dress-rehearsals' before developers merged Ethereum Mainnet. The Ethereum testnets are now proof-of-stake, just like Ethereum Mainnet. ETH on testnets has no real value; therefore, there are no markets for testnet ETH. Since you need ETH to actually interact with Ethereum, most people get testnet ETH from faucets. Most faucets are webapps where you can input an address which you request ETH to be sent to. +#### Goerli {#goerli} + +Goerli is a proof-of-stake testnet. It is expected to be maintained long-term as a stable testnet for application developers. Before its testnet merge, Goerli was a proof-of-authority testnet. + +- [Website](https://goerli.net/) +- [GitHub](https://github.com/goerli/testnet) +- [Etherscan](https://goerli.etherscan.io) + +##### Goerli faucets + +- [Goerli faucet](https://faucet.goerli.mudit.blog/) +- [Chainlink faucet](https://faucets.chain.link/) +- [Alchemy Goerli Faucet](https://goerlifaucet.com/) + #### Sepolia {#sepolia} -A proof-of-work testnet; this means it's the best like-for-like representation of Ethereum. Sepolia is expected to undergo The Merge to proof-of-stake in summer 2022. It is not yet certain whether it will then be maintained long term. +Sepolia is a proof-of-stake testnet. Although Sepolia is still running, it is not currently planned to be maintained long-term. Before undergoing The Merge in June 2022, Sepolia was a proof-of-work testnet. - [Website](https://sepolia.dev/) - [GitHub](https://github.com/goerli/sepolia) @@ -50,25 +62,12 @@ A proof-of-work testnet; this means it's the best like-for-like representation o - [Sepolia faucet](https://faucet.sepolia.dev/) - [FaucETH](https://fauceth.komputing.org) -#### Goerli {#goerli} - -A proof-of-authority testnet that works across clients; an ideal testnet for application developers. Goerli will be the final testnet merged to proof-of-stake before Ethereum Mainnet is merged. This is expected to happen in summer 2022. Goerli is expected to be maintained long term as a proof-of-stake testnet. - -- [Website](https://goerli.net/) -- [GitHub](https://github.com/goerli/testnet) -- [Etherscan](https://goerli.etherscan.io) - -##### Goerli faucets - -- [Goerli faucet](https://faucet.goerli.mudit.blog/) -- [Chainlink faucet](https://faucets.chain.link/) -- [Alchemy Goerli Faucet](https://goerlifaucet.com/) #### Ropsten _(deprecated)_ {#ropsten} _Note, [the Ropsten testnet is deprecated](https://github.com/ethereum/pm/issues/460) and will no longer receive protocol upgrades. Please consider migrating your applications to Sepolia or Goerli._ -Ropsten was a proof-of-work testnet that went through The Merge to proof-of-stake in May 2022. It can be used to test applications on a merged network, but it is not expected to be maintained long term and is likely to deprecated before summer 2023. +Ropsten is a proof-of-stake testnet. Ropsten will be deprecated in late 2022. Before undergoing The Merge in May 2022, Ropsten was a proof-of-work testnet. ##### Ropsten faucets diff --git a/src/content/developers/docs/nodes-and-clients/client-diversity/index.md b/src/content/developers/docs/nodes-and-clients/client-diversity/index.md index 80e3a73e919..f17e541d618 100644 --- a/src/content/developers/docs/nodes-and-clients/client-diversity/index.md +++ b/src/content/developers/docs/nodes-and-clients/client-diversity/index.md @@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ The behavior of an Ethereum node is controlled by the client software it runs. T ## Prerequisites {#prerequisites} -If you don't already have an understanding of what nodes and clients are, check out [nodes and clients](/developers/docs/nodes-and-clients/). The Beacon Chain is explained [here](/upgrades/beacon-chain/). [Execution](/glossary/#execution-layer) and [consensus](/glossary/#consensus-layer) layers are defined in the glossary. +If you don't already understand what nodes and clients are, check out [nodes and clients](/developers/docs/nodes-and-clients/). [Execution](/glossary/#execution-layer) and [consensus](/glossary/#consensus-layer) layers are defined in the glossary. ## Why are there multiple clients? {#why-multiple-clients} @@ -31,11 +31,11 @@ Client diversity also offers resilience to attacks. For example, an attack that ### Proof-of-stake finality {#finality} -Ethereum has had 100% uptime since the network began. After The Merge, the risks caused by poor client diversity become more alarming. A critical bug in a consensus client with over 33% of the Ethereum nodes could prevent the Beacon Chain from finalizing, causing Ethereum to go offline. +A bug in a consensus client with over 33% of the Ethereum nodes could prevent the Beacon Chain from finalizing, meaning users could not trust that transactions would not be reverted or changed at some point. This would be very problematic for many of the apps built on top of Ethereum, particularly DeFi. Worse still, a critical bug in a client with a two-thirds majority could cause the chain to incorrectly split and finalize, leading to a large set of validators getting stuck on an invalid chain. If they want to rejoin the correct chain, these validators face slashing or a slow and expensive voluntary withdrawal and reactivation. The magnitude of a slashing scales with the number of culpable nodes with a two-thirds majority slashed maximally (32 ETH). -Although these are unlikely scenarios, the Ethereum eco-system can mitigate their risk by evening out the distribution of clients across the active nodes. Ideally, no consensus client would ever have more than a 33% share of the total nodes. +Although these are unlikely scenarios, the Ethereum eco-system can mitigate their risk by evening out the distribution of clients across the active nodes. Ideally, no consensus client would ever reach a 33% share of the total nodes. ### Shared responsibility {#responsibility} diff --git a/src/content/developers/docs/storage/index.md b/src/content/developers/docs/storage/index.md index bd03af39154..5429b93dac9 100644 --- a/src/content/developers/docs/storage/index.md +++ b/src/content/developers/docs/storage/index.md @@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ This is known as **blockchain-based** persistence. The issue with blockchain-based persistence is that the chain could get far too big to upkeep and store all the data feasibly (e.g. [many sources](https://healthit.com.au/how-big-is-the-internet-and-how-do-we-measure-it/) estimate the Internet to require over 40 Zetabytes of storage capacity). -The blockchain must also have some type of incentive structure. For blockchain-based persistence, there is a payment made to the miner. When the data is added to the chain, the nodes are paid to add the data on. +The blockchain must also have some type of incentive structure. For blockchain-based persistence, there is a payment made to the validator. When the data is added to the chain, the validators are paid to add the data on. Platforms with blockchain-based persistence: @@ -89,15 +89,14 @@ Decentralized tools without KYC: Most of these tools have their own version of a [consensus mechanism](/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/) but generally they are based on either [**proof-of-work (PoW)**](/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pow/) or [**proof-of-stake (PoS)**](/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pos/). -PoW based: +Proof-of-work based: - Skynet - Arweave -- Ethereum -PoS based: +Proof-of-stake based: -- [The Beacon Chain](/upgrades/beacon-chain/) +- Ethereum - Filecoin - 0Chain diff --git a/src/content/developers/docs/transactions/index.md b/src/content/developers/docs/transactions/index.md index 27c7d73cfff..99450221a1c 100644 --- a/src/content/developers/docs/transactions/index.md +++ b/src/content/developers/docs/transactions/index.md @@ -19,9 +19,9 @@ An Ethereum transaction refers to an action initiated by an externally-owned acc ![Diagram showing a transaction cause state change](./tx.png) _Diagram adapted from [Ethereum EVM illustrated](https://takenobu-hs.github.io/downloads/ethereum_evm_illustrated.pdf)_ -Transactions, which change the state of the EVM, need to be broadcast to the whole network. Any node can broadcast a request for a transaction to be executed on the EVM; after this happens, a miner will execute the transaction and propagate the resulting state change to the rest of the network. +Transactions, which change the state of the EVM, need to be broadcast to the whole network. Any node can broadcast a request for a transaction to be executed on the EVM; after this happens, a validator will execute the transaction and propagate the resulting state change to the rest of the network. -Transactions require a fee and must be mined to become valid. To make this overview simpler we'll cover gas fees and mining elsewhere. +Transactions require a fee and must be included in a validated block. To make this overview simpler we'll cover gas fees and validation elsewhere. A submitted transaction includes the following information: @@ -30,10 +30,10 @@ A submitted transaction includes the following information: - `value` – amount of ETH to transfer from sender to recipient (in WEI, a denomination of ETH) - `data` – optional field to include arbitrary data - `gasLimit` – the maximum amount of gas units that can be consumed by the transaction. Units of gas represent computational steps -- `maxPriorityFeePerGas` - the maximum amount of gas to be included as a tip to the miner +- `maxPriorityFeePerGas` - the maximum amount of gas to be included as a tip to the validator - `maxFeePerGas` - the maximum amount of gas willing to be paid for the transaction (inclusive of `baseFeePerGas` and `maxPriorityFeePerGas`) -Gas is a reference to the computation required to process the transaction by a miner. Users have to pay a fee for this computation. The `gasLimit`, and `maxPriorityFeePerGas` determine the maximum transaction fee paid to the miner. [More on Gas](/developers/docs/gas/). +Gas is a reference to the computation required to process the transaction by a validator. Users have to pay a fee for this computation. The `gasLimit`, and `maxPriorityFeePerGas` determine the maximum transaction fee paid to the validator. [More on Gas](/developers/docs/gas/). The transaction object will look a little like this: @@ -158,7 +158,7 @@ Alice's account will be credited **+1.0 ETH** The base fee will be burned **-0.00399 ETH** -Miner keeps the tip **+0.000210 ETH** +Validator keeps the tip **+0.000210 ETH** Gas is required for any smart contract interaction too. @@ -174,11 +174,10 @@ Once the transaction has been submitted the following happens: 1. Once you send a transaction, cryptography generates a transaction hash: `0x97d99bc7729211111a21b12c933c949d4f31684f1d6954ff477d0477538ff017` 2. The transaction is then broadcast to the network and included in a pool with lots of other transactions. -3. A miner must pick your transaction and include it in a block in order to verify the transaction and consider it "successful". - - You may end up waiting at this stage if the network is busy and miners aren't able to keep up. -4. Your transaction will receive "confirmations". The number of confirmations is the number of blocks created since the block that included your transaction. The higher the number, the greater the certainty that the network processed and recognized the transaction. - - Recent blocks may get re-organized, giving the impression the transaction was unsuccessful; however, the transaction may still be valid but included in a different block. - - The probability of a re-organization diminishes with every subsequent block mined, i.e. the greater the number of confirmations, the more immutable the transaction is. +3. A validator must pick your transaction and include it in a block in order to verify the transaction and consider it "successful". +4. As time passes the block containing your transaction will be upgraded to "justified" then "finalized". These upgrades make it much + more certain that your transaction was successful and will never be altered. Once a block is "finalized" it could only ever be changed + by an attack that would cost many billions of dollars. ## A visual demo {#a-visual-demo} @@ -216,4 +215,3 @@ _Know of a community resource that helped you? Edit this page and add it!_ - [Accounts](/developers/docs/accounts/) - [Ethereum virtual machine (EVM)](/developers/docs/evm/) - [Gas](/developers/docs/gas/) -- [Mining](/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pow/mining/) diff --git a/src/content/developers/docs/web2-vs-web3/index.md b/src/content/developers/docs/web2-vs-web3/index.md index 18d9d83f92d..2b94b42bea3 100644 --- a/src/content/developers/docs/web2-vs-web3/index.md +++ b/src/content/developers/docs/web2-vs-web3/index.md @@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ This doesn't mean that all services need to be turned into a dapp. These example Web3 has some limitations right now: -- Scalability – transactions are slower on web3 because they're decentralized. Changes to state, like a payment, need to be processed by a miner and propagated throughout the network. +- Scalability – transactions are slower on web3 because they're decentralized. Changes to state, like a payment, need to be processed by a node and propagated throughout the network. - UX – interacting with web3 applications can require extra steps, software, and education. This can be a hurdle to adoption. - Accessibility – the lack of integration in modern web browsers makes web3 less accessible to most users. - Cost – most successful dapps put very small portions of their code on the blockchain as it's expensive. diff --git a/src/content/developers/tutorials/downsizing-contracts-to-fight-the-contract-size-limit/index.md b/src/content/developers/tutorials/downsizing-contracts-to-fight-the-contract-size-limit/index.md index 0e477e12fc2..f01a88ce4a1 100644 --- a/src/content/developers/tutorials/downsizing-contracts-to-fight-the-contract-size-limit/index.md +++ b/src/content/developers/tutorials/downsizing-contracts-to-fight-the-contract-size-limit/index.md @@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ On [November 22, 2016](https://blog.ethereum.org/2016/11/18/hard-fork-no-4-spuri This limit was introduced to prevent denial-of-service (DOS) attacks. Any call to a contract is relatively cheap gas-wise. However, the impact of a contract call for Ethereum nodes increases disproportionately depending on the called contract code's size (reading the code from disk, pre-processing the code, adding data to the Merkle proof). Whenever you have such a situation where the attacker requires few resources to cause a lot of work for others, you get the potential for DOS attacks. -Originally this was less of a problem, because one natural contract size limit is the block gas limit. Obviously a contract needs to be deployed within a transaction that holds all of the contract's bytecode. If you then include only that one transaction into a block, you can use up all of that gas, but it's not infinite. The issue in that case though is that the block gas limit changes over time and is in theory unbounded. At the time of the EIP-170 the block gas limit was only 4.7 million. Now the block gas limit just [increased again](https://etherscan.io/chart/gaslimit) last month to 11.9 million. +Originally this was less of a problem because one natural contract size limit is the block gas limit. Obviously, a contract must be deployed within a transaction that holds all of the contract's bytecode. If you include only that one transaction into a block, you can use up all that gas, but it's not infinite. Since the [London Upgrade](/history/#london), the block gas limit has been able to vary between 15M and 30M units depending on network demand. ## Taking on the fight {#taking-on-the-fight} @@ -146,9 +146,3 @@ function doSomething() { checkStuff(); } ``` Those tips should help you to significantly reduce the contract size. Once again, I cannot stress enough, always focus on splitting contracts if possible for the biggest impact. - -## The future for the contract size limits {#the-future-for-the-contract-size-limits} - -There is an [open proposal](https://github.com/ethereum/EIPs/issues/1662) to remove the contract size limit. The idea is basically to make contract calls more expensive for large contracts. It wouldn't be too difficult to implement, has a simple backwards compatibility (put all previously deployed contracts in the cheapest category), but [not everyone is convinced](https://ethereum-magicians.org/t/removing-or-increasing-the-contract-size-limit/3045/24). - -Only time will tell if those limits will change in the future, the reactions (see image on the right) definitely show a clear requirement for us developers. Unfortunately, it is not something you can expect any time soon. diff --git a/src/content/energy-consumption/index.md b/src/content/energy-consumption/index.md index d01475a0151..d877ba2ecd9 100644 --- a/src/content/energy-consumption/index.md +++ b/src/content/energy-consumption/index.md @@ -7,50 +7,50 @@ sidebar: true # Ethereum energy consumption {#introduction} -Ethereum's energy consumption will be reduced by ~99.95% following [The Merge](/en/upgrades/merge) from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS). After The Merge, Ethereum will use dramatically less carbon to be more secure. +Ethereum is a green blockchain. It uses a [proof-of-stake](/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pos) consensus mechanism that can be run on low-powered devices and does not require heavy computation to participate. Ethereum's proof-of-stake mechanism secures the network by using staked ETH rather than expended energy, like in [proof-of-work](/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pos). The switch to proof-of-stake means the energy expended by the Ethereum network is relatively small - on the order of 0.01 TWh/yr. -Since its inception, Ethereum has aimed to implement a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, but doing this without sacrificing security and decentralization has taken years of focused research and development. Therefore, the network started by using proof-of-work consensus. Proof-of-work consensus requires miners to use their computing hardware to solve a puzzle. The solution to the puzzle proves that energy has been expended by the miner, demonstrating that they invested real-world value for the right to add to the blockchain. Both proof-of-work and proof-of-stake are just mechanisms to decide who gets to add the next block. Swapping proof-of-work for proof-of-stake, where the real-world value invested comes from ETH staked directly in a smart contract, removes the need for miners to burn energy to add to the blockchain. Therefore, the environmental cost of securing the network is drastically reduced. +## Proof-of-stake energy expenditure {#proof-of-stake-energy} -## The Merge {#the-merge} +The energy expenditure of Ethereum is roughly equal to the cost of running a modest laptop for each node on the network. -[The Beacon Chain](/upgrades/beacon-chain/) has been running the proof-of-stake since November 2020 alongside the proof-of-work Ethereum Mainnet. In 2022, Ethereum developers transitioned several **testing networks (testnets)** running proof-of-stake to proof-of-stake by merging with their own Beacon Chains. These helped client teams test the software before moving to longer-lived networks. After these testnets, Ethereum developers launched new testnets for the community to use (Kiln & Kintsugi) and ran multiple shadow forks of existing testnets and Mainnet. Now that these have stabilized, teams are moving to the final stages of testing: transitioning long-lived testnets (Ropsten, Goerli, Sepolia) to proof-of-stake. Merging Ethereum Mainnet with the Beacon Chain is expected to happen in the second half of 2022. At the moment of the merge, Ethereum's proof-of-work mining will be switched off, proof-of-stake consensus will take over, and the energy consumed by the network will drop to <0.05% of its pre-merge amount. +Many articles estimate "per-transaction" energy expenditure to compare blockchains to other industries. The benefit of this is that it is easy to understand. However, transaction-based estimates can be misleading because the energy required to propose and validate a block is independent of the number of transactions within it. A per transaction unit of energy expenditure implies that fewer transactions would lead to smaller energy expenditure and vice-versa, which is not the case. A per-transaction estimate is highly dependent upon how a blockchain's transaction throughput is defined, and tweaking this definition can be gamed to make the value seem larger or smaller. -## Why proof-of-stake is greener than proof-of-work {#why-pos-is-greener-than-pow} +For example, on Ethereum, the transaction throughput is not only that of the base layer - it is also the sum of the transaction throughput of all of its "[layer 2](/layer-2/)" rollups, which are not generally included in calculations and would drastically reduce them. This is one reason why tools that compare energy consumption per transaction across platforms are misleading. -Proof-of-work is a robust way to secure the network. Transactions on the Ethereum blockchain are validated by [miners](/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pow/mining). Miners bundle together transactions into ordered blocks and add them to the Ethereum blockchain. The new blocks get broadcast to all the other node operators who run the transactions independently and verify that they are valid. Any dishonesty shows up as an inconsistency between different nodes. Honest blocks are added to the blockchain and become an immutable part of history. -The ability for any miner to add new blocks only works if there is a cost associated with mining and unpredictability about which specific node submits the next block. These conditions are met by imposing proof-of-work. To be eligible to submit a block of transactions, a miner must be the first to submit the solution to a computationally expensive puzzle. To successfully take control of the blockchain, a dishonest miner would have to consistently win the proof-of-work race by investing in sufficient hardware and energy to outperform the majority of other miners. +More relevant is the overall energy consumption and carbon footprint of the network as a whole. From those values, we can examine what that network offers to its users and society at large and make a more holistic evaluation of whether that energy expenditure is justified or not. Per transaction measurements, on the other hand, imply the value of the network only comes from its role in transferring crypto between accounts and prohibits an honest cost-benefit analysis. -This mechanism of securing the network is problematic for several reasons. First, miners can increase their odds of success by investing in more powerful hardware, creating conditions for an arms race with miners acquiring increasingly power-hungry mining equipment. This increases the network's energy consumption and generates hardware waste. Second, Ethereum's proof-of-work protocol currently has a total annualized power consumption approximately equal to that of Finland [^1] and a carbon footprint similar to Switzerland[^1]. +[Digiconomist provides whole-network energy consumption and carbon footprints for Bitcoin and Ethereum](https://digiconomist.net/ethereum-energy-consumption). At the time of writing this article, Bitcoin expends about 200 TWh/yr of energy and emits about 100 MT (megatons) of carbon per year, while generating about 32,000 T of electrical waste from obsolete hardware annually. In comparison, the total energy expenditure for securing Ethereum is closer to **0.01 TWh/yr**. -Proof-of-stake uses validators instead of miners. Validators perform the same function as miners, except that instead of expending their assets up-front as energy expenditure, they stake ETH as collateral against dishonest behavior. This staked ETH can be destroyed if the validator misbehaves, with more severe penalties for more nefarious actions. This strongly incentivizes active and honest participation in securing the network without requiring large energy expenditure. Since almost all of the energy expended securing the proof-of-work network comes from the mining algorithm, switching to proof-of-stake dramatically reduces energy expenditure. There is also no benefit to be had by investing in more powerful hardware under proof-of-stake, so there is no arms-race condition and less electronic waste. Ethereum validators can run on typical laptops or low-power devices such as [Raspberry Pi](https://ethereum-on-arm-documentation.readthedocs.io/en/latest/user-guide/ethereum2.0.html). +![Comparison of energy expenditure across industries](./energy.png) -Read more on [how Ethereum implements proof-of-stake](/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pos) and how it compares to proof-of-work. +The figure above shows the estimated annual energy consumption in TWh/yr for various industries (retrieved in June 2022). +_Note that the estimates presented in the plot are from publicly available sources that have been linked to in the text below. They are +illustrative and do not represent an official estimate, promise or forecast._ -## Proof-of-stake energy expenditure {#proof-of-stake-energy} +To put Ethereum's energy consumption in context, we can compare annualized estimates for other industries. Taking Ethereum to be a platform for securely holding digital assets as investments, perhaps we can compare to mining gold, which has been estimated to expend about [240 TWh/yr](https://www.kitco.com/news/2021-05-17/Gold-s-energy-consumption-doubles-that-of-bitcoin-Galaxy-Digital.html). As a digital payments platform we could perhaps compare to PayPal (estimated to consume about [0.26 TWh/yr](https://app.impaakt.com/analyses/paypal-consumed-264100-mwh-of-energy-in-2020-24-from-non-renewable-sources-27261)). As an entertainment platform we could perhaps compare to the gaming industry which has been estimated to expend about [34 TW/yr](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336909520_Toward_Greener_Gaming_Estimating_National_Energy_Use_and_Energy_Efficiency_Potential). Estimates of energy consumption by Netflix range dramatically between [about 0.45TWhr/yr](https://s22.q4cdn.com/959853165/files/doc_downloads/2020/02/0220_Netflix_EnvironmentalSocialGovernanceReport_FINAL.pdf) (their own estimates reported in 2019) up to about 94 TWh/yr (as estimated by [Shift Project](https://theshiftproject.org/en/article/unsustainable-use-online-video/)) - there is some discussion about the assumptions underlying these estimates available on [Carbon Brief](https://www.carbonbrief.org/factcheck-what-is-the-carbon-footprint-of-streaming-video-on-netflix). Alternatively, Ethereum could be compared to Youtube which has been estimated to expend about [244 TWh/yr](https://thefactsource.com/how-much-electricity-does-youtube-use/), although these values depend a lot on the type of device videos are streamed on and the energy-efficiency of underlying infrastructure such as data centers. Estimates of YouTube's energy expenditure have been broken down by channel and individual videos. [Those estimates](https://thefactsource.com/how-much-electricity-does-youtube-use/) imply that people consumed 45 times more energy watching Gangnam Style in 2019 than proof-of-stake Ethereum uses in a year. -Estimates based on the current Beacon Chain suggest that The Merge to proof-of-stake could result in a 99.95% reduction in total energy use, with proof-of-stake being ~2000x more energy-efficient than proof-of-work. The energy expenditure of Ethereum will be roughly equal to the cost of running a modest laptop for each node on the network. +## A green application layer {#green-applications} -Many articles estimate "per-transaction" energy expenditure to compare blockchains to other industries. The benefit of this is that it is easy to understand, but the energy required to mine a block is independent of the number of transactions within it. A per transaction unit of energy expenditure implies that fewer transactions would lead to smaller energy expenditure and vice-versa, which is not the case. A per-transaction estimate is highly dependent upon how a blockchain's transaction throughput is defined, and tweaking this definition can be gamed to make the value seem larger or smaller. +While Ethereum's energy consumption is very low, there is also a substantial, growing, and highly active **regenerative finance (ReFi)** community building on Ethereum. ReFi applications use DeFi components to build financial applications that have positive externalities benefiting the environment. ReFi is part of a wider ["solarpunk"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solarpunk) movement that is closely aligned with Ethereum and aims to couple technological advancement and environmental stewardship. The decentralized, permissionless, composable nature of Ethereum makes it the ideal base layer for the ReFi and solarpunk communities. Through the development of these (and others, e.g. [DeSci](/desci/)), Ethereum is becoming an environmentally and socially-positive technology. -For example, on Ethereum, the transaction throughput is not only that of the base layer - it is also the sum of the transaction throughput of all of its "[layer 2](/layer-2/)" rollups, which are not generally included in calculations and would drastically reduce them. This is why tools that compare energy consumption per transaction across platforms are misleading. +## Ethereum's carbon debt {#carbon-debt} -More relevant is the overall energy consumption and carbon footprint of the network as a whole. From those values, we can examine what that network offers to its users and society at large and make a more holistic evaluation of whether that energy expenditure is justified or not. Per transaction measurements, on the other hand, imply the value of the network only comes from its role in transferring crypto between accounts and prohibits an honest cost-benefit analysis. +Ethereum's current energy expenditure is very low, but this has not always been the case. Ethereum switched on its proof-of-stake consensus mechanism in Q3 2022. However, Ethereum used a proof-of-work mechanism from 2014-2022, which had a much greater environmental cost. -[Digiconomist provides whole-network energy consumption and carbon footprints for Bitcoin and Ethereum](https://digiconomist.net/ethereum-energy-consumption). At the time of writing this article, Ethereum's total energy consumption is ~112 TWh/yr, comparable to that of the Netherlands, with a Carbon emission equivalent to that of Singapore (53 MT/yr). For comparison, Bitcoin currently expends about 200 TWh/yr of energy and emits about 100 MT/yr C, while generating about 32,000 T of electrical waste from obsolete hardware annually. Switching off Ethereum's proof-of-work in favor of proof-of-stake will reduce this energy expenditure by more than 99.95%, implying that the total energy expenditure for securing Ethereum is closer to **0.01 TWh/yr**. +Since its inception, Ethereum aimed to implement a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, but doing so without sacrificing security and decentralization took years of focused research and development. Therefore, a proof-of-work mechanism was used to get the network started. Proof-of-work consensus requires miners to use their computing hardware to solve a puzzle, expending energy in the process. The solution to the puzzle proves that energy has been expended by the miner, demonstrating that they invested real-world value for the right to add to the blockchain. Ethereum's total energy consumption peaked during the apex of the crypto bull market in February 2022 at just under 94 TWh/yr. In the summer before the switch to proof-of-stake, the energy consumption was closer to 60 TWh/yr, comparable to that of Uzbekistan, with a carbon emission equivalent to that of Azerbaijan (33 MT/yr). -![Comparison of energy expenditure across industries](./energy.png) +Both proof-of-work and proof-of-stake are just mechanisms to decide who gets to add the next block. Swapping proof-of-work for proof-of-stake, where the real-world value invested comes from ETH staked directly in a smart contract, removes the need for miners to burn energy to add to the blockchain. Therefore, the environmental cost of securing the network is drastically reduced. -The figure above shows the estimated annual energy consumption in TWh/yr for various industries (retrieved in June 2022). -_Note that the estimates presented in the plot are from publicly available sources that have been linked to in the text below. They are -illustrative and do not represent an official estimate, promise or forecast._ +## Why proof-of-stake is greener than proof-of-work {#why-pos-is-greener-than-pow} -To put Ethereum's energy consumption in context, we can compare annualized estimates for other industries. If we take Ethereum to be a platform for securely holding digital assets as investments, perhaps we can compare to mining gold, which has been estimated to expend about [240 TWh/yr](https://www.kitco.com/news/2021-05-17/Gold-s-energy-consumption-doubles-that-of-bitcoin-Galaxy-Digital.html). As a digital payments platform we could perhaps compare to PayPal (estimated to consume about [0.26 TWh/yr](https://app.impaakt.com/analyses/paypal-consumed-264100-mwh-of-energy-in-2020-24-from-non-renewable-sources-27261)). As an entertainment platform we could perhaps compare to the gaming industry which has been estimated to expend about [34 TW/yr](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336909520_Toward_Greener_Gaming_Estimating_National_Energy_Use_and_Energy_Efficiency_Potential). Estimates of energy consumption by Netflix range dramatically between [about 0.45TWhr/yr](https://s22.q4cdn.com/959853165/files/doc_downloads/2020/02/0220_Netflix_EnvironmentalSocialGovernanceReport_FINAL.pdf) (their own estimates reported in 2019) up to about 94 TWh/yr (as estimated by [Shift Project](https://theshiftproject.org/en/article/unsustainable-use-online-video/)) - there is some discussion about the assumptions underlying these estimates available on [Carbon Brief](https://www.carbonbrief.org/factcheck-what-is-the-carbon-footprint-of-streaming-video-on-netflix). Alternatively, Ethereum could be compared to Youtube which has been estimated to expend about [244 TWh/yr](https://thefactsource.com/how-much-electricity-does-youtube-use/), although these values depend a lot on the type of device videos are streamed on and the energy-efficiency of underlying infrastructure such as data centers. Estimates of Youtube's energy expenditure have been broken down by channel and individual videos. [Those estimates](https://thefactsource.com/how-much-electricity-does-youtube-use/) imply that people consumed 45 times more energy watching Gangnam Style in 2019 than proof-of-stake Ethereum will use in a year. +Proof-of-work is a robust way to secure the network. Transactions on the Ethereum blockchain under the previous proof-of-work system were validated by [miners](/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pow/mining). Miners bundled together transactions into ordered blocks and added them to the Ethereum blockchain. The new blocks got broadcast to all the other node operators who run the transactions independently and verify that they are valid. Any dishonesty showed up as an inconsistency between different nodes. Honest blocks were added to the blockchain and became an immutable part of history. +The ability for any miner to add new blocks only works if there is a cost associated with mining and unpredictability about which specific node submits the next block. These conditions are met by imposing proof-of-work. To be eligible to submit a block of transactions, a miner must be the first to submit the solution to a computationally expensive puzzle. To successfully take control of the blockchain, a dishonest miner would have to consistently win the proof-of-work race by investing in sufficient hardware and energy to outperform the majority of other miners. -## A greener Ethereum {#green-ethereum} +This mechanism of securing the network is problematic for several reasons. First, miners would increase their odds of success by investing in more powerful hardware, creating conditions for an arms race with miners acquiring increasingly power-hungry mining equipment. This increased the network's energy consumption and generated hardware waste. Second, Ethereum's proof-of-work protocol (prior to transitioning to proof-of-stake) had a total annualized power consumption approximately equal to that of Finland [^1] and a carbon footprint similar to Switzerland[^1]. -While Ethereum's energy consumption has historically been substantial, there has been a significant investment of developer time and intellect into transitioning from energy-hungry to energy-efficient block production. To quote [Bankless](http://podcast.banklesshq.com/), the best way to reduce the energy consumed by proof-of-work is simply to "turn it off", which is the approach Ethereum has committed to taking. +Proof-of-stake uses validators instead of miners. Validators perform the same function as miners, except that instead of expending their assets up-front as energy expenditure, they stake ETH as collateral against dishonest behavior. This staked ETH can be destroyed if the validator misbehaves, with more severe penalties for more nefarious actions. This strongly incentivizes active and honest participation in securing the network without requiring large energy expenditure. Since almost all of the energy expended securing the proof-of-work network came from the mining algorithm, the switch to proof-of-stake dramatically reduced energy expenditure. There is also no benefit to be had by investing in more powerful hardware under proof-of-stake, so there is no arms-race condition and less electronic waste. Ethereum validators can run on typical laptops or low-power devices such as a [Raspberry Pi](https://ethereum-on-arm-documentation.readthedocs.io/en/latest/user-guide/ethereum2.0.html). -At the same time, there is a substantial, growing, and highly active **regenerative finance (ReFI)** community building on Ethereum. ReFi applications use DeFi components to build financial applications that have positive externalities benefiting the environment. ReFi is part of a wider "Solarpunk" movement that is closely aligned with Ethereum and aims to couple technological advancement and environmental stewardship. The decentralized, permissionless, composable nature of Ethereum makes it the ideal base layer for the ReFi and solarpunk communities. After The Merge, the technology and philosophy of Ethereum will finally reconcile, and Ethereum should become an environmentally-positive technology. +Read more on [how Ethereum implements proof-of-stake](/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pos) and how it compares to proof-of-work. If you think these stats are incorrect or can be made more accurate, please raise an issue or PR. These are estimates by the ethereum.org team made using publicly accessible information and the current Ethereum roadmap. These statements don't represent an official promise from the Ethereum Foundation. diff --git a/src/content/nft/index.md b/src/content/nft/index.md index f6e09540ab1..e311a1dc430 100644 --- a/src/content/nft/index.md +++ b/src/content/nft/index.md @@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ If Andy Warhol had been born in the late 90s, he probably would have minted Camp ## What's an NFT? {#what-are-nfts} -NFTs are tokens that we can use to represent ownership of unique items. They let us tokenise things like art, collectibles, even real estate. They can only have one official owner at a time and they're secured by the Ethereum blockchain – no one can modify the record of ownership or copy/paste a new NFT into existence. +NFTs are tokens that we can use to represent ownership of unique items. They let us tokenize things like art, collectibles, even real estate. Ownership of an asset is secured by the Ethereum blockchain – no one can modify the record of ownership or copy/paste a new NFT into existence. NFT stands for non-fungible token. Non-fungible is an economic term that you could use to describe things like your furniture, a song file, or your computer. These things are not interchangeable for other items because they have unique properties. @@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ NFTs are different from ERC-20 tokens, such as DAI or LINK, in that each individ - Signatures - Lots and lots more options to get creative with! -An NFT can only have one owner at a time. Ownership is managed through the uniqueID and metadata that no other token can replicate. NFTs are minted through smart contracts that assign ownership and manage the transferability of the NFT's. When someone creates or mints an NFT, they execute code stored in smart contracts that conform to different standards, such as ERC-721. This information is added to the blockchain where the NFT is being managed. The minting process, from a high level, has the following steps that it goes through: +Ownership of NFTs is managed through the unique ID and metadata that no other token can replicate. NFTs are minted through smart contracts that assign ownership and manage the transferability of the NFT's. When someone creates or mints an NFT, they execute code stored in smart contracts that conform to different standards, such as [ERC-721](/developers/docs/standards/tokens/erc-721/). This information is added to the blockchain where the NFT is being managed. The minting process, from a high level, has the following steps that it goes through: - Creating a new block - Validating information @@ -291,11 +291,10 @@ NFTs are growing in popularity which means they're also coming under increased s To clarify a few things: -- NFTs aren't directly increasing the carbon footprint of Ethereum. -- The way Ethereum keeps your funds and assets secure is currently energy-intensive but it's about to improve. -- Once improved, Ethereum's carbon footprint will be 99.95% better, making it more energy efficient than many existing industries. +- Creating and transferring NFTs are just Ethereum transactions - they have no direct impact on the energy expended by Ethereum, nor do they independently expend their own energy. +- Ethereum is a low-energy blockchain, meaning the environmental impact of creating, buying and transferring NFTs is very small. -To explain further we're going to have to get a little more technical so bear with us... +The next sections explain further with a little more technical detail... ### Don't blame it on the NFTs {#nft-qualities} @@ -305,67 +304,27 @@ Decentralized meaning you and everyone else can verify you own something. All wi Secure meaning no one can copy/paste your NFT or steal it. -These qualities of Ethereum makes digitally owning unique items and getting a fair price for your content possible. But it comes at a cost. Blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum are energy intensive right now because it takes a lot of energy to preserve these qualities. If it was easy to rewrite Ethereum's history to steal NFTs or cryptocurrency, the system collapses. +These qualities of Ethereum makes digitally owning unique items and getting a fair price for your content possible. Ethereum protects the assets using a decentralized consensus mechanism which involves ['proof-of-stake'](/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pos). This is a low carbon method to determine who can add a block of transactions to the chain, and is considered more secure than the energy-intensive alternative, ['proof-of-work'](/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pow). NFTs have been associated with high energy expenditure because Ethereum used to be secured using proof-of-work. This is no longer true. -#### The work in minting your NFT {#minting-nfts} +#### Minting NFTs {#minting-nfts} When you mint an NFT, a few things have to happen: - It needs to be confirmed as an asset on the blockchain. - The owner's account balance must be updated to include that asset. This makes it possible for it to then be traded or verifiably "owned". -- The transactions that confirm the above need to be added to a block and "immortalised" on the chain. -- The block needs to be confirmed by everyone in the network as "correct". This consensus removes the need for intermediaries because the network agrees that your NFT exists and belongs to you. And it's on chain so anyone can check it. This is one of the ways Ethereum helps NFT creators to maximise their earnings. +- The transactions that confirm the above need to be added to a block and "immortalized" on the chain. +- The block needs to be confirmed by everyone in the network as "correct". This consensus removes the need for intermediaries because the network agrees that your NFT exists and belongs to you. And it's on chain so anyone can check it. This is one of the ways Ethereum helps NFT creators to maximize their earnings. -All these tasks are done by miners. And they let the rest of the network know about your NFT and who owns it. This means mining needs to be sufficiently difficult, otherwise anyone could just claim that they own the NFT you just minted and fraudulently transfer ownership. There are lots of incentives in place to make sure miners are acting honestly. +All these tasks are done by block producers and validators. Block proposers add your NFT transaction to a block and broadcast it to the rest of the network. Validators check that the transaction is valid and then add it to their databases. There are lots of crypto-economic incentives in place to make sure validators are acting honestly. Otherwise, anyone could just claim that they own the NFT you just minted and fraudulently transfer ownership. -[More on mining](/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pow/) +#### NFT security {#nft-security} -#### Securing your NFT with mining {#securing-nfts} +Ethereum's security comes from proof-of-stake. The system is designed to economically disincentivize malicious actions, making Ethereum tamper-proof. This is what makes NFTs possible. Once the block containing your NFT transaction becomes finalized it would cost an attacker millions of ETH to change it. Anyone running Ethereum software would immediately be able to detect dishonest tampering with an NFT, and the bad actor would be economically penalized and ejected. -Mining difficulty comes from the fact that it takes a lot of computing power to create new blocks in the chain. Importantly, blocks are created consistently, not just when they're needed. They're created every 12 seconds or so. +Security issues relating to NFTs are most often related to phishing scams, smart contract vulnerabilities or user errors (such as inadvertently exposing private keys), making good wallet security critical for NFT owners. -This is important for making Ethereum tamper-proof, one of the qualities that makes NFTs possible. The more blocks the more secure the chain. If your NFT was created in block #600 and a hacker were to try and steal your NFT by modifying its data, the digital fingerprint of all subsequent blocks would change. That means anyone running Ethereum software would immediately be able to detect and prevent it from happening. - -However this means that computing power needs to be used constantly. It also means that a block that contains 0 NFT transactions will still have roughly the same carbon footprint, because computing power will still be consumed to create it. Other non-NFT transactions will fill the blocks. - -#### Blockchains are energy intensive, right now {#blockchains-intensive} - -So yes, there is a carbon footprint associated with creating blocks by mining – and this is a problem for chains like Bitcoin too – but it's not directly the fault of NFTs. - -A lot of mining uses renewable energy sources or untapped energy in remote locations. And there is the argument that the industries that NFTs and cryptocurrencies are disrupting have huge carbon footprints too. But just because existing industries are bad, doesn't mean we shouldn't strive to be better. - -And we are. Ethereum is evolving to make using Ethereum (and by virtue, NFTs) more energy efficient. And that's always been the plan. - -We're not here to defend the environmental footprint of mining, instead we want to explain how things are changing for the better. - -### A greener future... {#a-greener-future} - -For as long as Ethereum has been around, the energy-consumption of mining has been a huge focus area for developers and researchers. And the vision has always been to replace it as soon as possible. [More on Ethereum's vision](/upgrades/vision/) - -This vision is being delivered right now. - -#### A greener Ethereum {#greener-ethereum} - -Ethereum is currently going through a series of upgrades that will replace mining with [staking](/staking/). This will remove computing power as a security mechanism, and reduce Ethereum's carbon footprint by ~99.95%[^1]. In this world, stakers commit funds instead of computing power to secure the network. - -The energy-cost of Ethereum will become the cost of running a home computer multiplied by the number of nodes in the network. If there are 10,000 nodes in the network and the cost of running a home computer is roughly 525kWh per year. That's 5,250,000kWh[^1] per year for the entire network. - -We can use this to compare the future of Ethereum to a global service like Visa. 100,000 Visa transactions uses 149kWh of energy[^2]. In proof-of-stake Ethereum, that same number of transactions would cost 17.4kWh of energy or ~11% of the total energy[^3]. That's without considering the many optimizations being worked on in parallel to the consensus layer and shard chains, like [rollups](/glossary/#rollups). It could be as little as 0.1666666667kWh of energy for 100,000 transactions. - -Importantly this improves the energy efficiency while preserving Ethereum's decentralization and security. Many other blockchains out there might already use some form of staking, but they're secured by a select few stakers, not the thousands that Ethereum will have. The more decentralization, the more secure the system. - -[More on energy estimates](#footnotes-and-sources) - -_We’ve provided the basic comparison to Visa to baseline your understanding of proof-of-stake Ethereum energy consumption against a familiar name. However, in practice, it’s not really correct to compare based on number of transactions. Ethereum’s energy output is time-based. If Ethereum did more or less transactions from one minute to the next, the energy output would stay the same._ - -_It’s also important to remember that Ethereum does more than just financial transactions, it’s a platform for applications, so a fairer comparison might be to many companies/industries including Visa, AWS and more!_ - -#### Timelines {#timelines} - -The process has already started. [The Beacon Chain](/upgrades/beacon-chain/), the first upgrade, shipped in December 2020. This provides the foundation for staking by allowing stakers to join the system. The next step relevant to energy efficiency is to merge the current chain, the one secured by miners, into the Beacon Chain where mining isn't needed. Timelines can't be exact at this stage, but it's estimated that this will happen sometime in 2022. This process is known as The Merge (formerly referred to as the docking). [More on The Merge](/upgrades/merge/). - - - More on Ethereum upgrades + + More on security ## Build with NFTs {#build-with-nfts} @@ -379,71 +338,5 @@ Most NFTs are built using a consistent standard known as [ERC-721](/developers/d - [A beginner's guide to NFTs](https://linda.mirror.xyz/df649d61efb92c910464a4e74ae213c4cab150b9cbcc4b7fb6090fc77881a95d) – _Linda Xie, January 2020_ - [Everything you need to know about the metaverse](https://foundation.app/blog/enter-the-metaverse) – _Foundation team, foundation.app_ - [No, CryptoArtists Aren’t Harming the Planet](https://medium.com/superrare/no-cryptoartists-arent-harming-the-planet-43182f72fc61) +- [Ethereum's energy consumption](/energy-consumption/) - [A country's worth of power, no more](https://blog.ethereum.org/2021/05/18/country-power-no-more/) – _Carl Beekhuizen, May 18 2021_ - - - -### Footnotes and sources {#footnotes-and-sources} - -This explains how we arrived at our energy estimates above. These estimates apply to the network as a whole and are not just reserved for the process of creating, buying, or selling NFTs. - -#### 1. 99.95% energy reduction from mining {#fn-1} - -The 99.95% reduction in energy consumption from a system secured by mining to a system secured by staking is calculated using the following data sources: - -- 44.49 TWh of annualized electrical energy is consumed by mining Ethereum - [Digiconomist](https://digiconomist.net/ethereum-energy-consumption) - -- The average desktop computer, all that's needed to run proof-of-stake, uses 0.06kWh of energy per hour – [Silicon Valley power chart](https://www.siliconvalleypower.com/residents/save-energy/appliance-energy-use-chart) (Some estimates are a little higher at 0.15kWh) - -At the time of writing, there are 140 592 validators from 16 405 unique addresses. -Of those, 87 897 validators are assumed to be staking from home. - -It is assumed the average person staking from home uses a 100 watt desktop personal computer setup to run an average of 5.4 validator clients. - -The 87 897 validators running from home gives us 16 300 users consuming ~1.64 megawatt of energy. - -The rest of the validators are run by custodial stakers such as exchanges and staking services. -It can be assumed that they use 100w per 5.5 validators. This is a gross overestimation to be on the safe side. - -In total, Ethereum on proof-of-stake therefore consumes something on the order of 2.62 megawatt, which is about the same as a small American town. - -This is a reduction of at least 99.95% in total energy usage from the Digiconomist estimate of 44.94 TWh per year that the Ethereum miners currently consume. - -#### 2. Visa energy consumption {#fn-2} - -The cost of 100,000 Visa transactions is 149 kwH - [Bitcoin network average energy consumption per transaction compared to VISA network as of 2020, Statista](https://www.statista.com/statistics/881541/bitcoin-energy-consumption-transaction-comparison-visa/) - -Year-ending September 2020 they processed 140,839,000,000 transactions – [Visa financials report Q4 2020](https://s1.q4cdn.com/050606653/files/doc_financials/2020/q4/Visa-Inc.-Q4-2020-Operational-Performance-Data.pdf) - -#### 3. Energy usage for 100,000 transactions on a sharded proof-of-stake network {#fn-3} - -It's estimated that scalability upgrades will allow the network to process between 25,000 and 100,000 transactions per second, with [100,000 as the theoretical maximum right now](https://ethereum-magicians.org/t/a-rollup-centric-ethereum-roadmap/4698). - -[Vitalik Buterin on transactions per second potential with sharding](https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/1312905884549300224) - -At the bare minimum, sharding will allow 64 times the amount of transactions as today which sits at around 15 transactions. That's the amount of shard chains (extra data and capacity) being introduced. [More on shard chains](/upgrades/sharding/) - -That means we can estimate how long it will take to process 100,000 transactions so we can compare it to the Visa example above. - -- `15 * 64 = 960` transactions per second. -- `100,000 / 960 = 104.2` seconds to process 100,000 transactions. - -In 104.2 seconds, the Ethereum network will use the following amount of energy: - -`1.44kWh daily usage * 10,000 network nodes = 14,400kWh` per day. - -There are 86,400 seconds in a day, so `14,400 / 86,400 = 0.1666666667kWh` per second. - -If we multiply that by the amount of time it takes to process 100,000 transaction: `0.1666666667 * 104.2 = 17.3666666701 kWh`. - -That is **11.6554809866%** of the energy consumed by the same amount of transactions on Visa. - -And remember, this is based on the minimum amount of transactions that Ethereum will be able to handle per second. If Ethereum reaches its potential of 100,000 transactions per second, 100,000 transactions would consume 0.1666666667kWh. - -To put it another way, if Visa handled 140,839,000,000 transactions at a cost of 149 kWh per 100,000 transactions that's 209,850,110 kWh energy consumed for the year. - -Ethereum in a single year stands to consume 5,256,000 kWh. With a potential of 788,940,000,000 - 3,153,600,000,000 transactions processed in that time. - - - If you think these stats are incorrect or can be made more accurate, please raise an issue or PR. These are estimates by the ethereum.org team made using publicly accessible information and the planned Ethereum design. This doesn't represent an official promise from the Ethereum Foundation. - diff --git a/src/content/staking/pools/index.md b/src/content/staking/pools/index.md index b1e24cca95a..f693d4565d8 100644 --- a/src/content/staking/pools/index.md +++ b/src/content/staking/pools/index.md @@ -67,17 +67,11 @@ Typically ERC-20 liquidity tokens are issued to stakers that represents the valu -Currently, withdrawing funds from a validator on the Beacon Chain is not possible, which currently limits the ability to actually redeem your liquidity token for the ETH rewards locked in the consensus layer. -Alternatively, pools that utilize an ERC-20 liquidity token allow users to trade this token in the open market, effectively allowing you to "withdraw" without actually removing ETH from the Beacon Chain. - - - -Pooled stakers do not need to do anything to prepare for The Merge. +Currently, withdrawing funds from an Ethereum validator is not possible, which limits the ability to actually _redeem_ your liquidity token for the ETH rewards locked in the consensus layer. -However, as The Merge approaches, be on high alert for scammers. **You do not need to upgrade your ETH or staked ETH tokens** for the transition to proof-of-stake. -Learn more about [The Merge](/upgrades/merge/) +Alternatively, pools that utilize an ERC-20 liquidity token allow users to trade this token in the open market, allowing you to sell your staking position, effectively "withdrawing" without actually removing ETH from the staking contract. diff --git a/src/content/staking/saas/index.md b/src/content/staking/saas/index.md index a1cbfb54500..fd4fcc9b764 100644 --- a/src/content/staking/saas/index.md +++ b/src/content/staking/saas/index.md @@ -76,21 +76,7 @@ All of these keys can always be regenerated in a reproducible manner using your - When you stake 32 ETH with a SaaS provider, that ETH is still deposited to the official staking deposit contract. As such, SaaS stakers are currently limited by the same withdrawal restrictions as solo stakers. This means that staking your ETH is currently a one-way deposit. This will be the case until the Shanghai upgrade planned to follow the Merge. - - - - After the Merge, SaaS stakers will begin to receive unburnt transaction fees/tips. Check with your provider to determine how to update your settings to include an Ethereum address you control where these funds will be sent when the time comes. - -The Merge will not enable the ability to withdraw your stake or protocol rewards; this feature is planned for the Shanghai upgrade, which will follow the Merge by an estimated six months to a year. - - - -SaaS stakers do not need to do anything to prepare for The Merge. - -There are a few things node operators must attend to for this upgrade. Check with your staking provider for assurance their systems are ready to go. - -Learn more about [The Merge](/upgrades/merge/) + When you stake 32 ETH with a SaaS provider, that ETH is still deposited to the official staking deposit contract. As such, SaaS stakers are currently limited by the same withdrawal restrictions as solo stakers. This means that staking your ETH is currently a one-way deposit. This will be the case until the Shanghai upgrade. diff --git a/src/content/staking/solo/index.md b/src/content/staking/solo/index.md index 4f64ba0b2e0..19de7421f97 100644 --- a/src/content/staking/solo/index.md +++ b/src/content/staking/solo/index.md @@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ image: ../../../assets/staking/leslie-solo.png alt: Leslie the rhino on her own computer chip. sidebarDepth: 2 summaryPoints: - - Receive maximum rewards directly from the protocol (including unburnt fees after The Merge) for keeping your validator properly functioning and online + - Receive maximum rewards directly from the protocol for keeping your validator properly functioning and online - Run home hardware and personally add to the security and decentralization of the Ethereum network - Remove trust, and never give up control of the keys to your funds --- @@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ As much as we wish that solo staking was accessible and risk free to everyone, t

Ethereum security and scam prevention

 - Withdrawing staked ETH or rewards from a validator balance is not yet supported. Support for withdrawals are planned for the Shanghai upgrade following The Merge. You should anticipate your ETH being locked for at least one-to-two years. After the Shanghai upgrade you will be able to freely withdraw portions or all of your stake if you wish. + Withdrawing staked ETH or rewards from a validator balance is not yet supported. Support for withdrawals are planned for the upcoming Shanghai upgrade. You should anticipate your ETH being locked for at least one-to-two years. After the Shanghai upgrade you will be able to freely withdraw portions or all of your stake if you wish. Hardware occasionally fails, network connections error out, and client software occasionally needs upgrading. Node maintenance is inevitable and will occasionally require your attention. You'll want to be sure you stay aware of any anticipated network upgrades, or other critical client upgrades. @@ -89,10 +89,6 @@ The Staking Launchpad is an open source application that will help you become a - -Note for existing stakers: The Merge is approaching, which brings a few changes since staking was launched. Make sure you're prepared with the Merge readiness checklist over on the Staking Launchpad. - - ## What to consider with node and client setup tools {#node-tool-considerations} There are a growing number of tools and services to help you solo stake your ETH, but each come with different risks and benefits. @@ -130,7 +126,9 @@ Have a suggestion for a staking tool we missed? Check out our [product listing p These are a few of the most common questions about staking that are worth knowing about. -A validator is a virtual entity that lives on the Beacon Chain and participates in the consensus of the Ethereum protocol. Validators are represented by a balance, public key, and other properties. A validator client is the software that acts on behalf of the validator by holding and using its private key. A single validator client can hold many key pairs, controlling many validators. + +A _validator_ is a virtual entity that lives on Ethereum and participates in the consensus of the Ethereum protocol. Validators are represented by a balance, public key, and other properties. A _validator client_ is the software that acts on behalf of the validator by holding and using its private key. A single validator client can hold many key pairs, controlling many validators. + @@ -180,18 +178,6 @@ Offline penalties are proportional to how many others are offline at the same ti More on rewards and penalties - -Stakers currently running a consensus layer client (Beacon Chain) will also be required to run an execution layer client after The Merge. The new Engine API will be used to interface between the two layers, requiring a JWT secret. If you currently run a Beacon Chain without an execution layer client, you will need to sync the execution layer before The Merge to stay in sync with the network. - -The Merge will also bring unburnt transaction fees to validators. These fees do not accumulate in the balance associated with the validator keys but instead can be directed to a regular Ethereum address of your choice. To receive your tips (priority fees) from proposed blocks, you should update your client settings with the address you want your tips sent to. - -Links to individual client documentation and additional information can be found on the Merge readiness checklist over on the Launchpad. - - -Merge readiness checklist - - - ## Further reading {#further-reading} - [Ethereum's Client Diversity Problem](https://hackernoon.com/ethereums-client-diversity-problem) - _@emmanuelawosika 2022_ diff --git a/src/content/upgrades/beacon-chain/index.md b/src/content/upgrades/beacon-chain/index.md index 463d0d40881..9318069b8b6 100644 --- a/src/content/upgrades/beacon-chain/index.md +++ b/src/content/upgrades/beacon-chain/index.md @@ -7,51 +7,43 @@ sidebar: true image: ../../../assets/upgrades/core.png summaryPoint1: The Beacon Chain doesn't change anything about the Ethereum we use today. summaryPoint2: It introduced proof-of-stake to the Ethereum ecosystem. -summaryPoint3: It will coordinate the network, serving as the consensus layer. -summaryPoint4: It is an essential precursor to upcoming scaling upgrades, such as sharding. +summaryPoint3: It was merged with the original Ethereum proof-of-work chain in 2022. +summaryPoint4: The consensus logic and block gossip protocol introduced by the Beacon Chain now secures Ethereum. --- - The Beacon Chain shipped on December 1, 2020. To learn more, explore the data. If you want to help validate the chain, you can stake your ETH. + The Beacon Chain shipped on December 1, 2020. At the time, it was a separate chain to Ethereum Mainnet. It ran proof-of-stake but did not handle any transactions. The Beacon Chain was merged with the original Ethereum Mainnet in 2022 to take over the consensus logic and block propagation for Ethereum. Since The Merge, there has only been one Ethereum chain. -## What does the Beacon Chain do? {#what-does-the-beacon-chain-do} +## What was the Beacon Chain? {#what-is-the-beacon-chain} -The Beacon Chain is a ledger of accounts that conducts and coordinates the network of [stakers](/staking/). It isn't quite like the [Ethereum Mainnet](/glossary/#mainnet) of today. It does not process transactions or handle smart contract interactions. +The Beacon Chain was the name of the original proof-of-stake blockchain that was launched in 2020. It was created to ensure the proof-of-stake consensus logic was sound and sustainable before enabling it on Ethereum Mainnet. Therefore, it ran alongside the original proof-of-work Ethereum. Switching off proof-of-work and switching on proof-of-stake on Ethereum required instructing the Beacon Chain to accept transactions from the original Ethereum chain, bundle them into blocks and then organize them into a blockchain using a proof-of-stake based consensus mechanism. At the same moment, the original Ethereum clients turned off their mining, block propagation and consensus logic, handing that all over to the Beacon Chain. This event was known as [The Merge](/upgrades/merge/). Once The Merge happened, there were no longer two blockchains; there was just one proof-of-stake Ethereum chain. -It is a new consensus engine (or "consensus layer") that will soon take the place of proof-of-work mining, bringing many significant improvements with it. +## What did the Beacon Chain do? {#what-does-the-beacon-chain-do} -The Beacon Chain's role will change over time, but it's a foundational component for [the secure, environmentally friendly and scalable Ethereum we’re working towards](/upgrades/vision/). +The Beacon Chain was the name given to a ledger of accounts that conducted and coordinated the network of Ethereum [stakers](/staking/) before those stakers started validating real Ethereum transactions. It did not process transactions or handle smart contract interactions. + +It introduced the consensus engine (or "consensus layer") that took the place of proof-of-work mining on Ethereum and brought many significant improvements with it. + +The Beacon Chain was a foundational component for [the secure, environmentally friendly and scalable Ethereum we have now](/upgrades/vision/). ## Beacon Chain impact {#beacon-chain-features} ### Introducing staking {#introducing-staking} -The Beacon Chain introduced [proof-of-stake](/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pos/) to Ethereum. This is a new way for you to help keep Ethereum secure. Think of it like a public good that will make Ethereum healthier and earn you more ETH in the process. In practice, staking involves you staking ETH in order to activate validator software. As a staker, you'll run node software that processes transactions and creates new blocks in the chain. +The Beacon Chain introduced [proof-of-stake](/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pos/) to Ethereum. This keeps Ethereum secure and earns validators more ETH in the process. In practice, staking involves staking ETH in order to activate validator software. As a staker, you run the software that creates and validates new blocks in the chain. -Staking serves a similar purpose to [mining](/developers/docs/mining/), but is different in many ways. Mining requires large up-front expenditures in the form of powerful hardware and energy consumption, resulting in economies of scale, and promoting centralization. Mining also does not come with any requirement to lock up assets as collateral, limiting the protocol's ability to punish bad actors after an attack. +Staking serves a similar purpose that [mining](/developers/docs/mining/) used to, but is different in many ways. Mining required large up-front expenditures in the form of powerful hardware and energy consumption, resulting in economies of scale, and promoting centralization. Mining also did not come with any requirement to lock up assets as collateral, limiting the protocol's ability to punish bad actors after an attack. -The transition to proof-of-stake will make Ethereum significantly more secure and decentralized by comparison. The more people that participate in the network, the more decentralized and safe from attacks it becomes. +The transition to proof-of-stake made Ethereum significantly more secure and decentralized by comparison to proof-of-work. The more people that participate in the network, the more decentralized and safe from attacks it becomes. If you're interested in becoming a validator and helping secure the Ethereum, learn more about staking. -### The Merge and the end of mining {#the-merge} - -While the Beacon Chain (or "consensus layer") is already live, it has existed as a separate chain from Mainnet (or the "execution layer") since its genesis. The plan is to swap out the current proof-of-work algorithm on the execution layer today and replace it with the proof-of-stake consensus protocol that the Beacon Chain provides. - -This process is known as **The Merge**, as it will 'merge' the new consensus layer with the existing execution layer and stop the use of mining. - -The Merge will have an immediate and profound impact on the carbon footprint of the Ethereum network. It also sets the stage for future scalability upgrades such as sharding. - -[Learn more about Ethereum energy consumption](/energy-consumption/) - -[Learn more about The Merge](/upgrades/merge/) - ### Setting up for sharding {#setting-up-for-sharding} -After Mainnet merges with the Beacon Chain, the next major upgrade will introduce sharding to the network. +Since the Beacon Chain merged with the original Ethereum Mainnet, the Ethereum community started looking to scaling the network. Proof-of-stake has the advantage of having a registry of all approved block producers at any given time, each with ETH at stake. This registry sets the stage for the ability to divide and conquer but reliably split up specific network responsibilities. @@ -65,7 +57,7 @@ The Ethereum upgrades are all somewhat interrelated. So let’s recap how the Be ### Beacon Chain and The Merge {#merge-and-beacon-chain} -The Beacon Chain, at first, will exist separately to the Ethereum Mainnet we use today. But eventually they will be connected. The plan is to "merge" Mainnet into the proof-of-stake system that's controlled and coordinated by the Beacon Chain. +At first, The Beacon Chain existed separately from Ethereum Mainnet, but they were merged in 2022. The Merge @@ -73,14 +65,13 @@ The Beacon Chain, at first, will exist separately to the Ethereum Mainnet we use ### Shards and the Beacon Chain {#shards-and-beacon-chain} -Sharding can only safely enter the Ethereum ecosystem with a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism in place. The Beacon Chain introduced staking, which when 'merged' with Mainnet will pave the way for sharding to help further scale Ethereum. +Sharding can only safely enter the Ethereum ecosystem with a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism in place. The Beacon Chain introduced staking, which 'merged' with Mainnet, paving the way for sharding to help further scale Ethereum. Shard chains - - -## Interact with the Beacon Chain {#interact-with-beacon-chain} +## Further Reading - +[More on Ethereum's future upgrades](/upgrades/vision) +[More of proof-of-stake](/develoeprs/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pos) diff --git a/src/intl/en/page-staking.json b/src/intl/en/page-staking.json index e638e305b48..8ba428770d7 100644 --- a/src/intl/en/page-staking.json +++ b/src/intl/en/page-staking.json @@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ "page-staking-check-address": "Check deposit address", "page-staking-deposit-address": "Check the deposit address", "page-staking-deposit-address-desc": "If you’ve already followed the setup instructions on the launchpad, you’ll know you need to send a transaction to the staking deposit contract. We recommend you check the address very carefully. You can find the official address on ethereum.org and a number of other trusted sites.", - "page-staking-description": "Staking is the act of depositing 32 ETH to activate validator software. As a validator you’ll be responsible for storing data, processing transactions, and adding new blocks to the blockchain. This will keep Ethereum secure for everyone and earn you new ETH in the process. This process, known as proof-of-stake, is being introduced by the Beacon Chain.", + "page-staking-description": "Staking is the act of depositing 32 ETH to activate validator software. As a validator you’ll be responsible for storing data, processing transactions, and adding new blocks to the blockchain. This will keep Ethereum secure for everyone and earn you new ETH in the process.", "page-staking-hero-title": "How to stake your ETH", "page-staking-hero-header": "Earn rewards while securing Ethereum", "page-staking-hero-subtitle": "Staking is a public good for the Ethereum ecosystem. Any user with any amount of ETH can help secure the network and earn rewards in the process.", @@ -139,7 +139,7 @@ "page-staking-section-comparison-rewards-title": "Rewards", "page-staking-section-comparison-solo-rewards-li1": "Maximum rewards - receive full rewards directly from the protocol", "page-staking-section-comparison-solo-rewards-li2": "You'll get rewards for batching transactions into a new block or checking the work of other validators to keep the chain running securely", - "page-staking-section-comparison-solo-rewards-li3": "After The Merge you'll receive unburnt transaction fees for blocks you propose", + "page-staking-section-comparison-solo-rewards-li3": "You'll also receive unburnt transaction fees for blocks you propose", "page-staking-section-comparison-saas-rewards-li1": "Usually involves full protocol rewards minus monthly fee for node operations", "page-staking-section-comparison-saas-rewards-li2": "Dashboards often available to easily track your validator client", "page-staking-section-comparison-pools-rewards-li1": "Pooled stakers accrue rewards differently, depending on which method of pooled staking chosen", @@ -163,15 +163,15 @@ "page-staking-section-comparison-pools-requirements-li1": "Lowest ETH requirements, some projects require as little as 0.01 ETH", "page-staking-section-comparison-pools-requirements-li2": "Deposit directly from your wallet to different pooled staking platforms or simply trade for one of the staking liquidity tokens", "page-staking-faq-1-question": "What is a validator?", - "page-staking-faq-1-answer": "A validator is a virtual entity that lives on the Beacon Chain and participates in the consensus of the Ethereum protocol. Validators are represented by a balance, public key, and other properties. A validator client is the software that acts on behalf of the validator by holding and using its private key. A single validator client can hold many key pairs, controlling many validators.", + "page-staking-faq-1-answer": "A validator is a virtual entity that lives on Ethereum and participates in the consensus of the Ethereum protocol. Validators are represented by a balance, public key, and other properties. A validator client is the software that acts on behalf of the validator by holding and using its private key. A single validator client can hold many key pairs, controlling many validators.", "page-staking-faq-2-question": "Why do I need to have funds at stake?", "page-staking-faq-2-answer": "A validator has the ability to propose and attest to blocks for the network. To prevent dishonest behavior, users must have their funds at stake. This allows the protocol to penalize malicious actors. Staking is a means to keep you honest, as your actions will have financial consequences.", "page-staking-faq-3-question": "Can I buy 'Eth2'?", - "page-staking-faq-3-answer-p1": "There is no 'Eth2' token native to the protocol, as the native token ether (ETH) will not change with the transition to proof-of-stake. Learn more about The Merge", + "page-staking-faq-3-answer-p1": "There is no 'Eth2' token native to the protocol, as the native token ether (ETH) did not change when Ethereum switched to proof-of-stake.", "page-staking-faq-3-answer-p2": "There are derivative tokens/tickers that may represent staked ETH (ie. rETH from Rocket Pool, stETH from Lido, ETH2 from Coinbase). Learn more about staking pools", "page-staking-faq-4-question": "Is staking already live?", - "page-staking-faq-4-answer-p1": "Yes and no. Staking has been live since December 1, 2020, but until the Merge happens, the proof-of-stake consensus remains isolated on its own chain, while the existing Ethereum network as we know it continues to operate using proof-of-work. These two chains start separate, but with the Merge, proof-of-work will be fully deprecated, and proof-of-stake will become the sole means of consensus from here-on-out.", - "page-staking-faq-4-answer-p2": "This means that staking is currently live for users to deposit their ETH, run a validator client, and start earning rewards. After the Merge, stakers will earn higher rewards as validators begin to process transactions and earn fee tips on top of protocol rewards. After the Shanghai update (planned to follow the Merge by a few months), stakers will then be able to withdraw rewards and funds from their validator balance.", + "page-staking-faq-4-answer-p1": "Yes. Staking has been live since December 1, 2020", + "page-staking-faq-4-answer-p2": "This means that staking is currently live for users to deposit their ETH, run a validator client, and start earning rewards. After the Shanghai update, stakers will then be able to withdraw rewards and funds from their validator balance.", "page-staking-toc-how-to-stake-your-eth": "How to stake your ETH", "page-staking-toc-comparison-of-options": "Comparison of staking options", "page-staking-toc-faq": "FAQ",