ETH Foundation Removes All References to ETH1 And ETH2

The ETH foundation removes all references to ETH1 and ETH2 to save all future users from navigating a confusing model as we can see more in today’s latest Ethereum news.

The ETH foundation removes all references to eth1 and ETH2 in favor of calling the blockchain an execution layer and upgraded the proof of stake chain as the consensus layer. Ethereum’s transition from a proof of work mining model to a PoS consensus mechanism is expected to go live in the second or third quarter of the year. The foundation cited a number of reasons why including a “broken mental model for new users”, staking clarity, and scam prevention. The Ethereum Foundation noted that the branding of the ETH2 failed to capture what was going to happen to the network via the many upgrades:

“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.”

Under the new technology, the combination of the execution layer and the consensus layer will be labeled as Ethereum while the individual features like the Beacon Chain, merge, and shared chains will be referred to as “upgrades.”  The foundation stated that the rebranding will help bring more clarity to eliminate the scams where malicious actors scam victims unaware of their ETH that will switch to eTH2 following the merge and into swapping for fake ETH2 tokens. The blog post read:

“Unfortunately, malicious actors have attempted to use the Eth2 misnomer to scam users by telling them to swap their ETH for ‘ETH2’ tokens or that they must somehow migrate their ETH before the Eth2 upgrade.”

This isn’t 2018.

In 2018 we didn’t have: Layer 2, eth2, DeFi, NFTs, core dev funding and so much more.

Markets will market but I’m comfy af.

— eric.eth (@econoar) January 24, 2022

The news saw an apathetic response on Reddit where most users joked about the changes or complained about the time of the merge. One Redditor even stated that the rebranding came too late noting that the term ETH2 has been adopted by the users and the media:

“Everybody in the media, even the crypto-related one, runs with the term 2.0 or simply Eth2. And honestly, I think it is better that way, because [it’s] way easier to get for the (semi-)layperson, than ‘consensus layer,’ which needs you to understand the architecture of the network.”