Ethereum.org renames Eth1 and Eth2: only Ethereum will exist

Ethereum.org has announced the renaming of Eth1 and Eth2, stating that only Ethereum, a single chain, will exist. To limit any confusion, the two terms have been replaced to ‘execution level’ and ‘consensus level’, respectively.

Ethereum.org renames Eth1 and Eth2 to limit confusion

Reportedly, the term ‘Eth2’, which originated in 2018 and was identified as the version of Ethereum 2.0, the one with plans to scale the network in a decentralized way and move to Proof-of-Stake (PoS), has been officially removed as of the end of 2021. 

We've removed all uses of 'Eth2' terminology on https://t.co/v9gxnMUQFz

Find out why 👇 https://t.co/84uJXSD4q1

— ethereum.org (@ethdotorg) January 24, 2022

“We’ve removed all uses of ‘Eth2’ terminology on http://ethereum.org. Find out why”.

Ethereum.org wanted to take a stand on the matter, specifying that the two terms Eth1 and Eth2 were creating confusion. And so, in a world where terminology also takes on a key role, they decided to do the following:

Eth1: is now the ‘execution layer’, which handles transactions and data.

Eth2: is now the ‘consensus layer’, which handles the Proof-of-Stake consensus.

Execution layer + consensus layer = Ethereum.

Ethereum.org removes the term Eth2 to provide clarity

Continuing in its post, Ethereum.org explains the motivation that drove first the developers and then this formalization in removing the term Eth2. 

“One major problem with the Eth2 branding is that it creates a broken mental model for new users of Ethereum. They intuitively think that Eth1 comes first and Eth2 comes after. Or that Eth1 ceases to exist once Eth2 exists. Neither of these is true. By removing Eth2 terminology, we save all future users from navigating this confusing mental model”.

In addition to the mental model, Ethereum.org also explained that with the lack of clarity on terminology, scams are possible. In fact, some malicious actor seems to have attempted to use the misnomer Eth2 to scam users by telling them to exchange their ETH for ‘ETH2’ tokens or that they must somehow migrate their ETH before the Eth2 update.

In any case, Ethereum.org stresses that this renaming does not change the current roadmap planned for Ethereum (i.e. merging, sharding), but only aims to change the terminology for clarity. 

ZK rollups to solve ETH scaling

In late 2021, it appears that existing Layer 2 solutions for Ethereum have set their sights on Zero-Knowledge (ZK) scaling technologies that would solve Ethereum’s high fee problem. 

Specifically, it’s Polygon who reportedly announced that it has invested $400 million in startup Mir, which specializes in ZK rollups. 

Vitalik Buterin himself, in early December, had published Endgame, the hypothesis that Ethereum would have a multi-rollup future so that it could remain open to all possible future developments, without having to commit to a single solution.