What consensus mechanism does Ethereum use

1.

what is ethereum:

Ethereum is an innovation based on the application of technologies and concepts in bitcoin to computers. Ethereum itself imitates a lot of bitcoin technology to maintain the computer platform. blockchain technology is one of them
Ethereum platform can safely run any program users want

advantages of Ethereum over other competitive currencies before Ethereum appeared, some digital currencies imitated bitcoin. However, these projects have their own shortcomings, they can only support one or several specific applications at the same time< However, the reason why Ethereum can surpass the limitations of these projects in the past is because of the core idea of Ethereum

what Ethereum wants to implement is a blockchain protocol with built-in programming language. Since it supports programming language, in theory, any blockchain application can be defined with this language, and then run on Ethereum's blockchain protocol as an application

The design of Ethereum is very flexible and adaptable

Ethereum target sets the advantages of blockchain technology, in order to add the advantages of blockchain, such as decentralization, openness and security, to almost all computing fields

blockchain applications of Ethereum

Ethereum has many blockchain applications, such as digital applications of gold and stocks, financial derivatives applications, DNS and digital authentication, etc

Ethereum has achieved more than 100 blockchain applications by many start-ups

Ethereum has also been closely watched by some financial institutions, banking consortia (such as R3), as well as large companies like Samsung, Deloitte, RWE and IBM. As a result, a number of blockchain applications such as simplified and automated financial transactions, merchant loyalty index tracking, and gift cards designed to achieve decentralization of electronic transactions have emerged

the relationship between Ethereum and blockchain:

Ethereum is a programmable blockchain

Ethereum does not give users a series of preset operations (such as bitcoin transaction), but allows users to create complex operations according to their own wishes

in this way, Ethereum can be used as a platform for various types of decentralized blockchain applications, including but not limited to cryptocurrency

like other blockchains, Ethereum also has a peer-to-peer network protocol. Ethereum blockchain database is maintained and updated by many nodes connected to the network. Each network node runs the Ethereum simulator and executes the same instructions. Therefore, people sometimes call Ethereum "world computer"

2. At the top of Ethereum is DAPP. It exchanges with the smart contract layer through Web3. JS. All smart contracts run on EVM (Ethereum virtual machine) and use RPC calls. Below EVM and RPC are the four core contents of Ethereum, including: blockchain, consensus algorithm, mining and network layer. Except DAPP, all other parts are in the Ethereum client. The most popular Ethereum client is geth (go Ethereum)

3. When it comes to money, mining is indispensable. In Ethereum network, if you want to get Ethereum, you also need to mine it. When it comes to mining, there must be a consensus mechanism
do you remember what the consensus mechanism of bitcoin is? The consensus mechanism of bitcoin is pow. To put it simply, the more work you do, the higher the amount of computation you pay, the more likely you will be the first to find the correct hash value, and the more likely you will be rewarded with bitcoin
however, there are some defects in the pow of bitcoin, that is, it is too slow to process transactions, and miners need to constantly collide hash values through calculation, which is costly and inefficient. Friends who are interested in blockchain knowledge should see such a saying:
in order to make up for the deficiency of bitcoin, Ethereum has proposed a new consensus mechanism, called POS (this is the abbreviation of English, which means "proof of equity", also translated into "proof of equity")
POS simply means the same as its literal meaning: equity, equity. The more currency you hold, the more equity you have, the higher your equity
Ethereum's POS means that the more money you hold, the longer you hold it, the less difficult it will be to calculate and the easier it will be to mine
in the initial setting of Ethereum, Ethereum hopes to build a relatively stable system by using POW in the early stage, then graally adopt POW + POS, and finally completely transition to POS. So, it's true that the consensus mechanism of Ethereum is POS, but POS is only a plan or goal at the beginning of Ethereum's release. At present, Ethereum has not yet transitioned to POS, and the consensus mechanism adopted by Ethereum is still pow, that is, the pow of bitcoin, but it is slightly different from the pow of bitcoin
the amount of information here is a bit large,
the first information point is that the consensus mechanism currently adopted by Ethereum is also pow, but it is slightly different from the pow of bitcoin. So, what's the difference between the pow of Ethereum and bitcoin: in short, the mining difficulty of Ethereum can be adjusted, but the mining difficulty of bitcoin can't be adjusted. Just like our college entrance examination, because the teaching situation and the number of students in different provinces are not the same, so the college entrance examination is divided into national papers and provincial independent proposition
Ethereum said that I am in favor of the topic by region. Bitcoin said: No, it must be the same volume in the whole country. The difficulty is the same for everyone
the popular explanation is that bitcoin uses computer computing power to do a lot of hash collisions, enumerate various possibilities to find a correct hash value. The Ethereum system has a special formula to calculate the difficulty of each block. If a block is verified faster than the previous block, Ethereum protocol will increase the difficulty of the block. By adjusting the block difficulty, the time needed to verify the block can be adjusted
according to the Ethereum protocol, the dynamic adjustment method of difficulty is to make the time interval of creating new blocks in the whole network 15 seconds, and the network uses 15 seconds to create blockchain. In this way, because the time is too fast, the synchronization of the system is greatly improved, and it is difficult for malicious participants to launch 51% (that is, more than half) of the computing power to modify historical data in such a short time
the second information point is: in the initial setting of Ethereum, we hope to achieve the transition from POW to
POS through phased upgrade
dating back to 2014, at the beginning of Ethereum's launch, the team announced that the launch of the project would be divided into four stages, namely, Froniter, homestead, metropolis and serenity. In the first three stages, the consensus mechanism adopts pow (workload proof mechanism), and in the fourth stage, it switches to POS (equity proof mechanism)
on July 30, 2015, the first phase "frontier" of Ethereum was officially released. This phase is only suitable for developers. Developers can write smart contracts and decentralized application DAPP on Ethereum network, and miners begin to enter Ethereum network to maintain network security and get Ethereum coins. The leading-edge version is similar to the beta version, proving whether the Ethereum network is reliable or not
on March 14, 2016, Ethereum entered the second stage of "homeland". In this stage, Ethereum provides the wallet function, so that ordinary users can easily experience and use Ethereum. There is no obvious technology improvement in other aspects, but it shows that Ethereum network can run smoothly
in September 2017, Ethereum has reached the third stage of "metropolis"“ "Metropolis" is composed of Byzantine and Constantinople. The goal of this stage is to introce the hybrid chain mode of POW and POS, so as to prepare for the smooth transition from POW to POS. This is the latest popular "Ethereum Constantinople upgrade". In the Constantinople upgrade, Ethereum will make some changes to the underlying protocols and algorithms to lay a good foundation for the implementation of POW and
POS
how much reward will Ethereum get for mining? Miners who win the block creation competition will get the following income:
1. Static reward, 5 ethereums
2. The fuel cost in the block, i.e. gas, we talked about in the last issue
3. As a part of the block, it includes the extra reward of "Uncle block". Uncle is uncle of uncle, and each uncle block can get 1 / 32 of the mining reward as a reward, that is, 5 times 1 / 32, which is equal to 0.15625 ethereums. Here, let's briefly explain the concept of "TERT block". The concept of "TERT block" was proposed by Ethereum. Why should we introce the concept of TERT block? This also starts with bitcoin. In the bitcoin protocol, the longest chain is considered absolutely correct. If a block is not part of the longest chain, it is called a "orphan block". An isolated block is a block, which is also legal, but it may be found later, or the network transmission is slower, and it does not become part of the longest chain. In bitcoin, the solitude is meaningless and will be discarded later, and the miners who find the solitude will not receive mining related rewards
however, Ethereum does not think that isolated blocks are worthless, and Ethereum system will give rewards to miners who find isolated blocks. In Ethereum, isolated blocks are called "Uncle blocks", which can contribute to the security of the main chain. Ethereum's ten second block interval is too fast, which will rece the security. By encouraging the use of tertiary blocks, the main chain can obtain more security guarantees (because the isolated block itself is legal). Moreover, paying the tertiary block can also stimulate the miners to actively mine and actively use tertiary blocks. Therefore, Ethereum thinks that it is valuable.

4. 1. What is the ether classic<

etc (Ethereum Classic) is a bifurcated currency that Ethereum hard bifurcates after 1920000 blocks, and its function is very similar to Ethereum. Etc adheres to the concept of decentralization and supports the consensus mechanism of blockchain guarantee. Etc firmly believes that once the blockchain starts to run, its development direction will not be controlled by any central team, but will be determined by the consensus of the people participating in the whole network and the consensus of the computing power of the whole network

the Ethereum blockchain hard branching in July 2016 aims to transfer the Dao funds stolen by hackers to an account controlled by investors, and let the old transaction records be forgotten by history. Most Ethereum developers are involved in the reversal, as are exchanges, startups and other members of the ecosystem. A few days later, the project returned to normal. But not everyone wants to forget the old record. As a result, a small number of miners continued to use the original blockchain as a protest. They described the hard fork as a capital withdrawal for the abandoned project of the Dao. So Ethereum classic (etc) was born

2. Detailed parameters

Chinese Name: Ethereum classic English Name: Ethereum classic English abbreviation: etc

developer: Ethereum Classic team core algorithm: ethash consensus proof: POW

release date: 2016 / 7 / 20 block time: About 15-17 seconds / block

total currency: fixed at 210 million, up to 230 million, Every 5 million blocks decelerate by 20%, and the first proction rection is expected to be in December 2017

main features: independent cryptocurrency

5. There are many consensus mechanisms in the blockchain. The advantage of the pow consensus mechanism behind bitcoin, the most influential one, is that it is secure and can not be tampered with. The disadvantage is that it is too slow to process only seven transactions a second

6. With the upgrading of Ethereum to version 2.0 this year, the consensus mechanism will be converted to POS, which will have a huge impact on miners. There are two choices for miners. One is to sell mining equipment and buy eth to adapt to the stacking mechanism of POS; The second is to switch the miner to other networks supporting GPU miner. Nick foster, a representative of kabombacks, a US mining equipment distributor, said most eth miners would choose the latter

after Ethereum is upgraded to version 2.0 POS mechanism, miners may switch mining machines to other networks
as Ethereum is finally ready to start its Ethereum 2.0 upgrade later this year, thus eliminating the long-term delay, the network will start to move towards the proof of rights model

therefore, the network will give up the workload proof consensus algorithm, so that eth miners have little choice. As their equipment will become obsolete, they will be forced to start mining counterfeit coins or re qualify as eth mortgagors. So, what is the current situation of Ethereum mining? With the coming transition, what will happen to the whole instry< At present, Ethereum consensus is based on POW system, which is similar to bitcoin (BTC). As a result, Ethereum's mining process is almost the same, as miners use their computing resources to earn rewards for each block they try to complete< However, there are still major differences between these processes. Although bitcoin mining has relied almost entirely on ASIC (large, loud machines designed specifically for cryptocurrency mining, most of which are concentrated in areas with low electricity prices), Ethereum's pow hash algorithm ethash is designed to support global chip manufacturers (such as NVIDIA and AMD). As Thomas Heller, global business director of cryptocurrency mining pool f2pool, explained in a conversation with cointegraph, GPU is much cheaper and easier to access than ASIC

"as ASIC is a very professional machine, when a new generation of procts is released, it is usually a huge technological leap. As a result, they have a much higher hash rate and are more energy efficient than the previous generation. This means that those manufacturers have spent a lot of money to research and develop it. Their machines are usually very expensive, and GPUs are much cheaper. "

Heller added that those who use GPU miners "have more flexibility to mine." For example, the popular NVIDIA geforce GTX 1080 Ti card can mine more than 15 different currencies, while ASIC units usually support only one currency

nevertheless, Ethereum is not completely immune to ASIC miners - at least in its current state. In April 2018, bitcontinent released antminer E3, an ASIC specially proced for mining Ethereum. Although widely praised for its hash rate of 180 megahashes per second and power consumption of 800 watts, it has received different responses from the Ethereum community. After the ASIC is inserted, a considerable number of GPU rig owners seem to suffer from loss of profits, and some are even forced to switch to other networks

"in the white paper, ETH must have ASIC resistance. I would like to say that the white paper stands for something "is one of the highest comments on the AR / ethermining topic about the topic discussed when antminer E3 was announced. Another reddit user argued that "the $800 only applies to 180mh."“ Split or die of a nation. "

some Ethereum users continue to suggest that bitmain's mining devices can lead to greater concentration, thus increasing the possibility of attack by 51%. Soon, a group of developers put forward "programmed workload proof" or progpow, which is an extension of the current Ethereum algorithm ethash, aiming to make GPU more competitive and promote decentralization

according to a paper published in March by Kristy Leigh Minehan, co-founder of progpow, about 40% of the hash rate of Ethereum is generated by bitmain ASIC. Alejandro de la Torre, the vice president of poolin, is the sixth largest pool of eth. He confirmed to cointegration that "GPU mining is still dominant" in Ethereum network, and added:

"at present, the profit of eth mining is not high, and the management threshold and cost of GPU equipment are higher than ASIC equipment. Compared with ASIC devices, GPU devices are more flexible, and you can use other algorithms to switch to other coins. "

progpow has not been integrated into Ethereum, and it is not clear when it will be finally implemented - in March, Ethereum core developers were debating whether progpow will really benefit the network in nearly two hours, and failed to reach a consensus. It is worth noting that a bitmain representative has previously told cointegraph that the mining hardware giant does not intend to extend the service life of antminer E3 to start operation after October 2020: "as far as we know, mining will end in October or some time after that."

a safe but uncertain future

indeed, Ethereum will stay away from mining in the future. Ethereum 2.0, which is planned to be launched later in 2020, is a major network upgrade on the blockchain, aiming to transfer its current POW consensus algorithm to a virtual POS (known as "block verifier")

more specifically, users are randomly selected considering their wealth in the network or their "interests". In other words, the more coins a POS verifier chooses to put in, the more coins accumulated as a reward

according to vitalik buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, e to the transition, the network will be more secure and the attack cost will be higher than the network of bitcoin, although the debate about the better consensus algorithm in the encryption community has lasted for many years. However, it is not clear when to start Ethereum 2.0, as many errors and management issues are reported to be delaying the process

another hypothetical benefit of POS system is that it has higher energy efficiency than pow blockchain. According to digiconomist, the cryptocurrency's total annual footprint is 59.31 terawatts per hour, which is comparable to the electricity consumption of Greece as a whole. However, since a report in July 2019 estimated that 74% of the exploitation of bitcoin was done using renewable energy, the environmental impact of bitcoin does not seem to be so serious

what will happen to the actual Ethereum miner? According to the documentation of Casper upgrade as part of Ethereum 2.0 roadmap, the network will initially support a hybrid model including both POW and POS, thus providing some space for block verifiers and GPU / ASIC miners. Jack O & 39, CEO of skale network; "There will definitely be a transition period when two networks are running at the same time," Holleran told cointegration The CEO of scale network (based on Ethereum's blockchain platform) gave a detailed description of this process:

"the transition from eth1 to eth2 takes time of course - it may be years rather than months. The good news about this slow transition is that dapps and defi platforms will be able to roam around based on survivability, security and real-world evidence of adoption. This is a positive impact on the Ethereum ecosystem. "

dig or not

once Ethereum is fully in the POS orbit, miners will have two options. One is to sell the equipment and use the money to accumulate more Eth and start mortgage. The other is the choice for GPU miners, which is simply switching to other ethash networks and mining counterfeit money. Nick foster, a representative of kabombacks, a US mining equipment dealer, told cointegration that most eth miners would choose the latter:

"what I want to say is that most of the miners have not really entered Ethereum or the mining of specific tokens. Yes, there is a certain amount of mineral deposits and holds, but I oppose the view that a large number of Shanzhai coin miners hold their coins at any time. "<

foster then described how he used 3gb GPU units to mine ethash's point-to-point blockchain asset ravencoin (RVN). Once it was unable to mine eth, he said, "this is the reason for mining crows. I immediately sold stability to BTC, and then sold it to US dollars to pay for my rights. I would say that a lot of people are adopting this strategy. "

as foster concludes, he wants eth miners to jump out of the network, and new players - those who don't invest in power infrastructure or drilling rigs - will take a stake in eth. He described the following:

"I can't imagine if I found a five-year lease with $0.04 of electricity and I was mining eth, I decided to sell everything and then continue to pay the rent so that I could hold eth as a share. Substitute. "

Marc fresa, founder of asic.to, a mining firmware company, agreed in a conversation with cointegraph: "if you invest in mining, you won't bet because you have enough room to grow."

one of the main counterfeit coins that may benefit from POW miners leaving Ethereum is Ethereum classic (etc), which is a more conservative version of the blockchain. It is reported that there is no POS related plan. As it also runs on the ethash algorithm, the startup of Ethereum 2.0 may lead to the migration of miners, so its hash rate may have a significant peak

eth's larger pools have similar options. When asked about the company's plans for Ethereum after pow, Heller told cointegraph that after the announcement of Ethereum's POS upgrade, f2pool launched a sister company called story.fish in early 2018. Story.fish has started to provide mortgage services for other POS and delegated POS projects, such as tezos (xtz), Cosmos (atom) and Cardano (ADA), e to numerous handover delays. For prin, e to the transition to POS, it "may temporarily give up supporting eth mining," de la Torre told cointegraph

other top eth pools, namely nanopool, ethermine, pool center, sparkpool and spiderpool, did not respond to requests for comment from cointegraph.

7. POW: proof of work (POW), a simple explanation is a proof to confirm that you have done a certain amount of work. Because the whole process of monitoring work is usually extremely inefficient, and it is a very efficient way to prove that the corresponding workload has been completed through the certification of the work results. For example, in real life, graation certificate, driver's license and so on, are obtained by means of test results. That is to say, how much money you get depends on your effective contribution to mining. Simply understand, the better your computer performance, the more revenue you will get. This is to allocate money according to your workload. Most digital currencies, such as bitcoin, lightcoin, etc., are virtual currencies based on POW mode (the higher the computing power, the longer the mining time, the more coins you get)
pos: POS is a consensus algorithm in the public chain, which can be used as a replacement of pow algorithm. POW is a mechanism to ensure the security of bitcoin, Ethereum and many other blockchains, but POW algorithm is criticized for destroying the environment and wasting power in the process of mining. POS tries to solve these problems by replacing the concept of mining with a different mechanism
POS mechanism can be described as a kind of virtual mining. POS mainly relies on the token in the blockchain itself. In pow, a user may buy a computer for 1000 dollars, join the network to mine and proce new blocks, and get a reward. In POS, users can buy tokens of equal value with us $1000 and put them into the POS mechanism as deposit, so that users have the opportunity to generate new blocks and get rewards. In pow, if users spend $2000 on hardware equipment, they will of course get twice the computing power to mine, thus getting twice the reward. Similarly, if you invest twice as much token as the deposit in the POS mechanism, you have twice as much chance to get the right to generate new blocks.

8. Casper is a consensus mechanism of the next generation of Ethereum, which belongs to POS. Casper's consensus was reached by blocks, not by chains, as pos did. Currency exchange of digital currency

9. About Dakar POW & #10133; POS consensus mechanism is the blockchain 3.0 technology. POW maintains the stability of the blockchain, POS maintains the management of the blockchain. POS is the proof of rights and interests mechanism. The number and age of coins determine your mining. The minimum age of coins is two weeks. In the case that you don't transfer money from your wallet, the age of coins is calculated from the date you receive the coins. If the age of coins exceeds two weeks, you start mining. After you reach the mine, Currency age clear! That is to say, mining machines and computers are not needed, and power resources will not be wasted to pollute the environment. Just open your wallet once every two weeks. Ethereum is also planning to upgrade to POW & # 10133; POS consensus mechanism!