Ethereum[1] (ETH) developers have recently discussed the most significant upcoming updates to the ETH network at Ethereum Core Devs Meeting #40 [2]that took place Friday, June 15.
[LIVE] Ethereum Core Developer Meeting #40 [06/15/18] https://t.co/iqucGaNi15 #ethereum #allcoredevs pic.twitter.com/bDvhIpd2n4[3][4][5][6]
— Ethereum (@ethereum)
The key point of the recent meeting is rescheduling the releases of two main Ethereum chain upgrades such as Casper and sharding. Casper should have been released as a smart contract[8] separately from the sharding upgrade. The new proposals suggest that Casper may be released on a shard, or a sidechain instead.
Sharding, announced[9] by Ethereum’s co-founder Vitalik Buterin[10] in April 2018, is a method of increasing the number of transactions that a blockchain[11] can process. The idea of sharding is that the nodes store just a part of the distributed registry, but each element of sharding i.e. a node can rely on the information of others.
Casper FFG was first published[12] in October 2017, as a “proof of stake[13] (PoS)-based finality system which overlays an existing proof of work[14] (PoW) blockchain.” It intended[15] to solve “open questions of economic finality through validator deposits and crypto-economic incentives.”
In late April, the Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) #1011: Hybrid Casper FFG was introduced[16], aiming to solve the issues associated with crypto mining[17] by providing a hybrid system of consensus. According to the latest proposal, ETH network would combine PoW with PoS consensus, with the goal of eventually transitioning to PoS. According to the EIP, one of the specifications
