ETH 2.0, the new Proof of Stake network reached a major milestone today as the total number of validators on the platform crossed 100,000 with more than $3 million worth of ETH already staked. The upgraded Ethereum network launched the first phase of ETH 2.0 called Beacon Chain in December last year to start the three-phase rollout expected to take 2 years.

ETH 2.0 is said to be the biggest upgrade of the decentralized space as Ethereum being the second-largest crypto asset. The decision to move from Proof-of-work to Proof-of-stake was due to growing scalability issues, especially after the defi boom. The current Ethereum network has faced several connections over the last year resulting in a very high gas fee. The growing transaction cost on ethereum has also made Defi protocols quite expensive to use.

Vitalik Buterin the co-founder of Ethereum believes ETH 2.0 would be as fast and scalable as the centralized payment processing giants such as Mastercard and Visa once fully deployed. The PoS network would introduce sharding that would allow for parallel transaction processing in every block.

The ETH 2.0 beacon chain has 100k validators, every validator has to attest and sign the chain every 10 minutes, that's roughly 166 validators signing each second

For reference your average ETH killer has 40 validators total

— Agustín Aguilar (@Agusx1211) February 24, 2021

ETH 2.0: The Two-Year Roadmap and What to Expect at the End of it

ETH 2.0 promises a truly decentralized network that can compete with modern-day traditional payment processing giants, however, the two-year-long roadmap after years of making seems a long time. The current Ethereum network is suffering dearly as the average transaction cost is going around $10 making many Defi protocols and Dapps barely usable.

The growing scalability issues have also helped other similar blockchain networks to gain popularity in the short term. The likes of Binance Smart Chain and Cardano. Both the networks have registered tremendous on-chain volume at the cost of the Ethereum network. BSC is currently seeing double the volume of Ethereum primary because of its low translation cost and faster speed. Cardano yesterday processed $14 billion worth of trade for a mere 7,400 USD while the Ethereum network processed $13 billion for a whopping $3 million in transaction fee.