Ethereum 2.0 is a hot topic in the blockchain community. The expectations for the upgrade to fix current issues are high. Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin made it clear, ETH 2.0 is coming. But when? This information and more, he recently revealed in a recent podcast with Lex Fridman.
The founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin joined the Lex Fridman podcast last week in one of his first interviews in a long time. Vitalik shared a lot of interesting thoughts on Ethereum 2.0, blockchain oracles, the relationship of crypto and crime, and much more.
When will Ethereum 2.0 be released?
When will Ethereum 2.0 be released and what can we expect from it? This is one of the hottest topics in blockchain right now. And Lex Fridman went right for it. When he asked Buterin how Ethereum 2.0 will be released and when we could expect it, Buterin said:
“Recently, we’ve been altering the whole Ethereum 2.0 branding, so to to speak. So, the reason behind that is originally we imagined something more like a big grand event where all the good things would happen at the same time and it would be a new blockchain and protocol. People would make a lot of effort to migrate over. But slowly we’ve changed the roadmap to something that is much more incremental. So, proof of stake happens overtime, sharding happens over time, and all these different features get added at different times. So, the experience of regular users will feel very seamless. Maybe it’s just a little more complex than than hard forks that we’ve already done, but not by that much. The big things that are happening are proof of stake.”
In short, ETH 2.0 will not all be released at once. Instead they will release several updates over time. Furthermore, Buterin shared that he didn’t believe all of the Ethereum upgrades will be ready until 2022. As more upgrades are released, the Ethereum network will be able to handle a higher volume of users. Additionally, the transaction times and fees will be significantly reduced.
Do blockchain and crypto increase crime?
Fridman and Buterin also talked about crime and whether a world run by Ethereum would make it easier for criminals to get away with their offenses. Buterin thinks there are two sides to this:
“There’s always that possibility. But at the same time if you look at the world as a whole and the way all the other technological trends are going, for example, in person surveilance is increasing every year. So, the world where things go dark to such an extent that criminals are committing crimes without impunity seems unlikely. It’s a risk but at the the same time in the future crypto can allow as much of a defense as an attack against that sort of thing.”
Crypto, blockchain and crime is also a much discussed issue. As the decentralized nature of cryptocurrencies make it easier for criminals go around laws and government regulations, blockchain by nature is considered more secure than centralized systems. Lex Fridman also points this out:
“Yeah. If you look at history many of the most destructive things came from centralized institutions rather than people ‘working in the shadows’. One thing about operating at the edge of legality is that it could actually accelerate the adoption of particular things like other things in the grey area of legality. ”
Vitalik then agreed that reducing the number of intermediaries like banks is normally a good thing.
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Aaron is passionate about blockchain and has been an investor in cryptocurrencies for the past years. He enjoys engaging with other people in the cryptocurrency community online, particularly on Telegram, and learning from experts.