Ethereum’s team has been planning to present the novel technological updates to the system, but it seems that there might be some alterations taken before the final release. These updates are known as Casper and sharding, and they might be activated altogether instead of been presented separately, Ethereum’s creator Vitalik Buterin hinted.
New Design
At the moment, the team of Ethereum’s devs is looking at the possibility of making changes to the intended release of tech upgrades, Coindesk reports.
Our top trading bots
Last week, Vitalik Buterin took the floor at a meeting of the platform’s devs, giving a response to rumors that sharding and Casper were going to be rolled out. He told that the team might consider changing the sequence in which two upgrades are activated.
Earlier, it was proposed that Ethereum would roll Casper or shard out as a smart contract, whereas now it might be released on a side chain.
Particularly, Buterin noted:
"This is a substantial reworking of the intermediary steps in the roadmap, but of not the final product."
What Are Casper And Sharding?
Both of these upgrades are estimated to be the most anticipated Ethereum’s releasing.
Casper is a consensus algorithm proof-of-stake, which Ethereum has been planning for long. It pledges to be more effective and countervailing than its current proof-of-work system.
At the same time, sharding is expected to solve the scaling issue for the system with a vast number of financial operations.
So if these two were enabled together, Ethereum’s creator explained, they would lead to a version of the protocol that would work more effectively. Buterin, describing Casper and sharding, suggested that they may “scale up to the theoretical maximum.”At present, the existing version of Casper, which is called Casper FFG, is being put to the test as a smart contract EIP 1011 on ethereum software users. Nevertheless, the platform’s team might still change its mind in the name of new design.
Danny Ryan, the author of the smart contract EIP 1011, said at the meeting:
"As someone who has been working on this, it took a second to digest and to be comfortable moving forward with, but I am totally okay with this, and think it gets us where we want to be sooner rather than later."
What Are The Advantages of Combining Sharding & Casper?
Buterin explained the benefits of the simultaneous release like this:
"The development of the one system will be much more directionally en route to what we expect the final later stage sharding system to look like."
On top of that, if the first version of Casper is brought onto a shard, the deposit will decline notably. This deposit is demanded to take part in protecting the network, and if it all works out, its price might go down from 1,500 units of Ether to only 32. Thus, Buterin emphasized, this may encourage regular individuals to take part in staking.
Moreover, the new design may enable Casper to go live without being tied to Ethereum blockchain. Buterin said that Casper is more separate from the main chain and it can be generated with less meddling as a distinct chain with its own standards.
Justin Drake, the dev of sharding, reiterated these thoughts, saying that “it allows to unlock new functionality which radically changes the performance properties of the design."
He also added that the novel system could bring safety benefits. For instance, it would lead to the “automicity” between nodes on both upgrades. This would enhance their security at a time.
You can't be a Casper validator without also being a sharding validator," stressed Drake.
The dev kept naming the benefits of bringing sharding and Casper together and even he said it’s good if two upgrades and their lobbying teams are united to bring more positive effects.
Hard Fork Talks
Besides discussing Casper and sharding, the devs discussed the platform’s novel hard fork Constantinople which may not contain any alterations, related to Casper. The dev Nick Johnson said that there is a high possibility that the fork will be executed in the span of five months.
