The long-anticipated series of updates to Ethereum, dubbed Ethereum 2.0, is not only intended to revamp core features of the smart contract platform in order to make it faster, more scalable and more energy efficient, but it’s also reshaping the Ethereum narrative itself.
Eth 2.0 may have missed its latest target for a roll-out in the second quarter, but the world’s second-largest, public, decentralized blockchain platform has a new tentative launch date: July 2020.
All of the delays combined with the decision to shift from a proof-of-work system to a proof-of-stake model has sparked a debate about the direction of Ethereum. Community member Trenton Van Epps is working to debunk a number of negative viewpoints, characterizing them as misconceptions about Ethereum.
First and foremost, Van Epps says Eth 2.0 is launching, despite the setbacks, detractors and naysayers.
In a new Medium post, retweeted by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, Van Epps says summer is the new target date.
“While it’s definitely been a long path since the rearchitecting in mid-2018, timelines have solidified.”
Van Epps also explains that Eth 2.0 represents many phases and that as it rolls out, it will co-exist with Eth 1.0 for at least a little while. Another urban legend: two tokens will emerge after the network update. Van Epps confirms there will only be one.
Buterin remarked during a recent ask-me-anything session,
“If you are just holding ETH and want to keep your money, in all present proposals there is no risk from you going into a cave for five years.”
And as for Buterin’s dominance over the decentralized project, Van Epps says it isn’t so. He points to a robust group of roughly 75 main developers and an expanding pool of individual contributors, and also quotes another Ethereum co-founder, Joe Lubin.
“If Vitalik took some time off … the Ethereum machine would just keep chugging.”
You can check out the full list of Eth2.0 misconceptions here.