This is really over the top. In the past two days, I have been running around attending Devcon events, and I have seen a lot of news about Ethereum upgrading to 3.0—BeamChain, and the Layer2 "miracle pill" (I'm so angry). The already passive Layer2 has been unfairly stabbed in the back, triggering a crash. In fact, it's a big positive! Let me quickly share my views:
1) Don't think that a new chain means a large-scale Fork and the issuance of a new token
As Justin Drake said, BeamChain is just an upgrade to the Beacon Chain, and it is currently only a proposal, and it will be a long time before it is officially launched, and it is completely in line with Ethereum's Roadmap.
Ethereum is already divided into the Beacon Chain and the EVM execution chain, and the two together constitute the Ethereum chain we know, with the Beacon Chain playing the role of the consensus layer and the EVM playing the execution layer. Don't think that just because it's called a chain, it's a completely new thing. BeamChain is just a transitional upgrade to the Beacon Chain and doesn't affect the execution of the Ethereum chain at all.
Where does this Ethereum 3.0 come from?
2) Let's talk about the logic behind the Beacon Chain upgrade:
In the Ethereum EVM execution layer, the Proposer block proposer, Realy relay nodes, and Validators play the roles of "project manager", "worker", and "quality inspector" respectively. After the user submits the transaction to the Mempool, the block builder Builder will select transactions from the transaction pool and package them, during which it will handle some transaction ordering functions, and then distribute the constructed block to the Realy, and the Proposer will select the optimal block, and finally the Validators will verify and validate it.
In this process, there is a high degree of centralization in the Builder's transaction sorting and Realy's transaction distribution, and large-scale builders like Flashbot can make decisions on some block order, which is obviously not in line with Ethereum's grand strategy.
Therefore, Justin has proposed a concept, which is to add an inclusion list to the Builder's block construction, which is a list of transactions that must be included. If there is "centralized interference" in the Builder and Relay links, or if the proposing node needs to both supervise the block construction and participate in the subsequent consensus, the proposer-builder separation (PBS) can be used. If the Validators find that some key transactions are not in the transaction list, they can directly verify that the block is unqualified. You can see that the inclusion list is to improve the decentralization of the Ethereum block generation process and enhance its anti-censorship capability.
The question is, who puts the inclusion list into the entire execution and verification process? It can only be added through the Beacon Chain consensus layer, but the Beacon Chain does not support this function, so it needs to be upgraded to BeamChain to improve it. In the future, the Beacon Chain can publicly display all the transactions that must be included, and if there are problems in the execution layer, the verification nodes will not pass it.
In addition, the Pectal upgrade also involves the problem of changing the staking threshold from 32 ETH to 1 ETH, which involves changes to the Beacon Chain's economic model and management logic, and also requires a major version upgrade.
Moreover, as Ethereum moves towards full SNARKization in the Verge and other stages, the verification process of the Beacon Chain and the EVM execution chain will also need to be optimized with SNARKs, and anti-quantum cryptographic attacks have always been one of Ethereum's strategic goals, and the Beacon Chain upgrade will also change some signature verification mechanisms to make Ethereum more secure.
So the emergence of BeamChain is completely to prepare for a series of necessary work to meet Ethereum's roadmap.
3) Why is it a big positive, not a negative, for Layer2?
First of all, Ethereum has already determined the Rollup-Centric grand strategic expansion idea, and the BeamChain upgrade cannot shake this fundamental strategy, otherwise the proposal would not be approved by the entire Ethereum community even if Justin had this intention.
Secondly, the key point in saying that the new Beacon Chain of BeamChain will help Ethereum achieve mainnet-level expansion is SNARKization. After SNARKs, the entire Ethereum framework will change from verifying all data storage and computation to only verifying the Proof, naturally achieving a major expansion, but this expansion is the result of the ZK-ization of the underlying data structure logic, and is not on the same dimension as the expansion of Layer2. One is responsible for reducing operating costs, and the other is responsible for traffic and user application scenarios. So don't think that just because the mainnet is scalable, it means weakening Layer2.
Furthermore, a few days ago I published an article interpreting @VitalikButerin's idea that when Ethereum is fully SNARKized and the EVM becomes one of the altVMs, other outstanding altVMs on Layer2 will be promoted to the mainnet level to execute transactions in parallel with the entire Ethereum ecosystem. https://x.com/tmel0211/status/1851597835655078225…
At that time, the role of BeamChain will also be greatly amplified, and the upgrade is very necessary. And following this logic, excellent VM solutions that meet Ethereum's expansion needs will be absorbed into the mainnet to execute transactions, and the interoperability between Ethereum Layer2s will also be smoothly solved, which is fully in line with the grand strategy of Layer2 development.
Now there are so many generic Layer2s on the market, and if Ethereum really adopts a modular approach and a new strategy of alt-VMs, many Layer2s will get a direct "upward channel" from Ethereum, which can also promote the reshuffling and optimization of Layer2, isn't this a direct positive?
Finally, we should look forward to the arrival of the ZK big bang era a little more, and really don't spread FUD and rumors without any logical judgment. https://x.com/tmel0211/status/1855949307658273137… (Please learn more about what the project parties in the ZK track are doing!)
