Ethereum's main developer, Preston Van Loon informed that Ethereum 2.0 or the consensus layer will start broadcasting in August a few months after the Ethereum testnet merger, Ropsten took place on June 8.
It is understood Ropsten’s presence will see Proof of Work (PoW) merge with Proof of Stake (PoS) after genesis begins on May 30th.
However, the expected launch of Eth2 depends on the difficulty bomb: "If there is no change to the difficulty bomb setting, you can implement The Merge as early as possible."
Difficulty bomb refers to the difficulty of block production (mining) once Ethereum 2.0 and Proof of Stake (PoS) are ready to launch.
The Merge is the term used for the occurrence of the current Ethereum blockchain merge (execution layer / Eth1) with the Phase 0 Beacon Chain.
While in Phase 0, PoS will start and broadcast by itself over a period of time. At the same time, as long as Phase 0 takes place, Eth1 can be leveraged for data availability.
PoW → PoS
Ethereum used the PoW mechanism before its community decided to switch to PoS.
This shift takes Ethereum away from mining using high electricity to get paid. Instead it focuses on staking where Ethereum investors can deposit ETH into the platform for rewards.
At the same time, this consensus further facilitates stakers to operate the network, enabling decentralization and high protection.
In fact, the delay in the launch of Eth2 is expected because in mid -January the developers have already announced the date change.
The announcement invites various reactions yet the transition will reduce ETH production by around 90%.
The less ETH in supply, the greater the demand; and this will result in a price spike.
At the time of writing, a unit of ETH is trading at $ 2,019.98, up more than 5% in 24 hours but down more than 1% since last week.
