Ethereum Shadow Fork - What Does It Mean?
frens, a few days ago, Ethereum got yet another step closer to its final form with a successful "shadow fork".
Ethereum's Shadow Fork
I'm not a developer, and you're probably not a developer either. So I won't get into all the super technical shit since it probably won't make sense to either one of us. I have just enough blockchain dev experience to understand some of this stuff but the rest flies over my head. I wrote a post in December where I was playing around with the Kintsugi testnet, which was the first Ethereum merge testnet.
If you're not familiar with what's happening with Ethereum, it is currently in the process of transitioning from Proof of Work consensus to Proof of Stake. This means that instead of mining with hardware, users will be able to stake their ETH to validate transactions. There's a lot of advantages to Proof of Stake consensus, but the major one is scalability. We've seen fees on the network skyrocket multiple times due to network congestion, and the Proof of Stake merge will solve this.
Ethereum currently exists as 2 layers. There's the execution layer, which is what we use on a daily basis. Then there's the consensus layer, which is called the Beacon Chain. It's running alongside the execution layer with Proof of Stake already working. Once all the necessary tests are complete, we will see the 2 layers merge into the next version of Ethereum. This is something that has been being worked on for years.
The level of complexity that this merge entails is unimaginable almost. The devs are really doing some incredible work here. Running testnets is normally the way that developers are able to test code and changes without affecting the mainnet. Recently the Kintsugi testnet was completed and the Kiln testnet was deployed.
In order to really start seeing what will happen when the 2 layers of Ethereum merge, they needed to do something more realistic. This is where the shadow fork comes into play. It enables developers to test how nodes react when the Merge happens without disrupting or affecting the main chain.
Essentially, the shadow fork that happened yesterday is a copy of the mainnet with the configuration for the Merge.
If you wanna read all the technical shit that you probably won't understand, a lot of it is covered in this Twitter thread. I think the graphic above gives you the general idea. So with the shadow fork running, we are able to see the issues with the merge before the actual merge takes place.
Surprisingly enough, it seems to be working with few bugs. Blocks are finalizing and processing at around 12 seconds. This is a huge accomplishment for the Ethereum devs and a huge step toward the merge.
Obviously there are going to be bugs and such, that is the whole point. It comes down to how serious they are and how they are addressed really. So you may have read this entire post and still be wondering what the Shadow Fork means for Ethereum...
It means that we could likely see Ethereum's merge happen very soon. The last testnet was only live for a couple months because it went so successfully. The current testnet will probably conclude soon. This will not be the only shadow fork. This is just the beginning of testing what will happen, so we could likely see a few more before the actual merge happens.
Keep in mind that while things are moving pretty quickly right now with development that this is something that's never been done before. Ethereum is one of the most used blockchains that exists and completely changing the way it validates transactions without breaking it is going to be quite a feat. I can't wait to see what happens.
Thanks for reading! Much love.
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Pretty amazing work and really interesting, I didn't realize the shadow fork had happened, but it's great to hear it's going well so far!
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It really flew under the radar somehow.
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So in short the shadow fork is a type of test phase and a test method. They are testing the planned changes on a "close" of Ethereum to make sure that everything is good.
Nowadays I do not use Ethereum, but I hope that everything will go successfully.
Good luck and all the best to the Ethereum developers (and to everyone else).
Yep, just a way to test what will happen without breaking things.
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Eth is one of my favorite coin but I rarely follow or check updates, thanks for this well explained blog about ETH. Its really very helpful for many of us.
I feel this transition will significantly reduce Ethereum’s energy requirement, which many have come to oppose about Bitcoin.
I'm waiting for this Ethereum merge and wonder if it really will lower the high fees!
I'm also waiting for PulseChain to launch "any day now." PulseChain is a complete State fork of Ethereum, meaning every ETH and every single ERC-20 token will be copied onto the PulseChain blockchain. We all know that State forks are possible because we lived through it 2 years ago when Hive forked Steem with State and we all got as many Hive and HBD as we had Steem and SBD.
It is said that Pulsechain is 4 times faster than Ethereum with a 3 second block time. We know this is possible because we have that on Hive. Also, PulseChain is Proof Of Stake! So they will launch with what Ethereum hopes to merge into in about a year.
Fees are said to be super low on PulseChain and its designed to be deflationary. Tokens are burned by validators (we call them Witnesses here).
I love Ethereum and I'm interested to see how Pulsehain can take some pressure off the Ethereum chain so maybe gas fees will become more reasonable. We live in interesting times!
I don't really follow ETH but it seems like high-tech stuff. I have been hearing about people talking about this change from proof of work to proof of stake and I can't wait to see what actually happens. I wonder what the miners will do when things are complete.
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It's pretty wild. Miners will have to power down their rigs or start mining another token. It will greatly increase scalability and decentralization.
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Enjoyed this post. Eth devs are cool, busy little bees.
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