The Ethereum Foundation has announced that they will be removing all references to ETH1 and ETH2.
There is no ETH2, only Ethereum
The original Ethereum blockchain, formerly called Eth1 will henceforth be referred to as the “execution layer”, while the Proof of Stake blockchain introduced by Eth2 will be referred to as the “consensus layer”. In a blog post published on Monday, the Ethereum Foundation has explained their reasoning behind the renaming:
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.
Furthermore, the Ethereum Foundation hopes to clarify that no official ETH2 token exists, as several staking service providers, such as Coinbase, have referenced their staking share tokens as ETH2. Also, some scammers have apparently tried to impersonate Ethereum by claiming that users need to migrate their tokens to ETH2.
No changes to the roadmap
The Ethereum Foundation clarifies that no token migration will be taking place and that Ethereum users can hold and use the ETH token in the familiar way once The Merge rolls out. It will ultimately switch the network to a Proof-of-Stake consensus.
According to the blog post, the rebranding will not change Ethereum’s roadmap in any way. So far, an official release date for The Merge has not been announced, but an official upgrade doc anticipates the upgrade to ship in Q2 2022.
