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As the price of Bitcoin (BTC) and other crypto assets have boomed, so have the underlying fundamentals of this embryonic space. Reports have revealed that Ethereum (ETH) may soon transition to the early stages of Proof of Stake (PoS) integration, ensuring scalability is on its way.
Ethereum Phase Zero Could Be Finalized In June
In March, Vitalik Buterin, the Russian-Canadian founder of Ethereum, took to the stage of Token2049, a blockchain event in Hong Kong, to talk all things about his brainchild. He first explained that Serenity could simply be explained as “a way to bring technical improvements, like PoS and sharding, together to improve the Virtual Machine, Merkle Trees, the efficiency of the protocol, and a whole bunch of small technical things that you have never heard of.” Per the industry insider, this is all being done in a bid to create a “next-generation blockchain” to be hundreds of times faster and scalable than Ethereum’s current iteration.
As it stands, Ethereum has yet to even enter phase zero (there’s a total of three phases — zero, one, and two) of the Serenity integration, but Buterin explains that this is coming. He remarks that phase zero is near-finalization spec-wise, touching on an effectively complete section of a whitepaper that outlines 2.0. Buterin explains that phase zero-related testnets, which are centered primarily around staking, could get launched by what he calls “implementers,” like Parity and others, in the near future.
And according to a recent Ethereum Core Developers call, this would seem to be the case. As first reported by CoinDesk, Justin Drake of the Ethereum Foundation remarked that code specifications for phase zero are “on track” to see finalization by June 30th. Once finalization occurs, developers can begin building code around said specifications, as they ensure that everyone is on the same page. Drake elaborates:
“We’re still very much on track. Still, [code] simplifications are coming through which is great and the process of fine combing is also for finding final bugs.”
For those unaware, phase zero, also dubbed “Beacon Chain,” will allow for validators, rather than miners, stake Ether and vote on improvement proposals.
This recent confirmation that Ethereum development continues as Bitcoin has boomed comes mere weeks after Buterin came out to claim that development of the blockchain is “continuing right on schedule.”
Mainstream Traction
This all comes as Ethereum, or private chains based on the technology at least, have begun to gain traction in the mainstream, especially with big-name corporations. For instance, in late-April, rumors revealed that Samsung, one of the world’s largest technology shops, has intentions to build an Ethereum-based blockchain that will host its own token. It isn’t clear what use this asset would hold, but the source suggests that blockchain could be brought to Samsung Pay, the tech giant’s fintech application.
In a similar string of news, JP Morgan and Microsoft unveiled a partnership that will see Quorum, the former’s Ethereum-based chain, be implemented into the tech company’s Azure Blockchain Service, thus allowing for the wider adoption of blockchain.
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