tl;dr
- Concluded: rebranding the blog
- Update your nodes!
Concluded, rebranding the blog
If you have perused my latest writings or heard me discuss Ethereum and this significant upgrade that’s underway, you may have observed that I’m not only avoiding the term “phases” (instead, referring to a sequence of autonomous upgrades), but that I’ve also been striving to put the phrases “eth1” and “eth2” behind us. I’ve mentioned that these labels are quite poor and elaborated on this in January’s “The State of Eth2”.
What we refer to as “eth2” constitutes a series of significant enhancements to Ethereum’s consensus-layer — aimed at ensuring the protocol remains secure, sustainable, and scalable — while “eth2 clients” are the implementations utilizing this proof-of-stake consensus.
In this context, “eth1” refers to Ethereum’s extensive application-layer, and similarly, “eth1 clients” (post-upgrade to proof-of-stake) are the software that handles the demanding tasks within this layer. At present, Ethereum’s application-layer operates via a proof-of-work consensus algorithm but will soon shift to the beacon chain — the proof-of-stake consensus system currently in operation and supported by approximately 3.5M ETH.
Now, to continue my initiative, I’m rebranding this blog series. From this point forward, the series will be known as “Concluded: the Ethereum consensus-layer”, where the title honors the fundamental purpose of the proof-of-stake consensus-layer — finality.
Stakers: Update your nodes
To remain connected, you must be Berlin compatible
The Ethereum PoW chain is set to undergo a mainnet upgrade, dubbed Berlin, on April 14, 2021. This is a backwards incompatible fork, thus necessitating the update of your software to continue participating in the mainnet. For further details, refer to the EF’s Ethereum Berlin Upgrade Announcement.
As a beacon chain staker, having an Ethereum PoW endpoint is essential to effectively carry out all your various responsibilities as a validator. This feature acts as the one-way connection between the system components, facilitating new validator deposits.
Consequently, to successfully sustain this connection, stakers must update their Ethereum PoW nodes! If you operate on the Pyrmont testnet, you must upgrade your Goerli nodes before March 17, 2021, and if you validate on the mainnet, you need to update your mainnet PoW nodes before April 14, 2021.
Additionally, a good opportunity to update your beacon node
Alongside updating your PoW nodes, I strongly advocate for updating your beacon nodes as well. Recent times have seen numerous substantial optimizations across all mainnet clients. To ensure your validators perform with optimal efficiency (and profitability), download the latest release and give it a go.
Update your nodes! 🚀
