Ethereum has taken another important step towards the final transition from PoW to PoS; the developers have already published the first release of the long-awaited Casper network update.
Casper v0.1.0, which was released Tuesday by New Orleans developer Danny Ryan, gives programmers, auditors and other external parties the ability to more easily integrate source code into their testing software.
“v0.1.0 will allow us to clearly label releases, and it will help clients and external auditors track contract data and changes,” Ryan writes.
Casper is a core component of the Ethereum community's ambitious plan to change the way the blockchain is updated and protected from hacker attacks. At the moment, Ethereum is achieving consensus using PoW, which is colloquially called mining. The developers want Ethereum to use PoS, through which node operators will deposit or “pledge” ether in order to become network validators.
The transition to PoS, in their opinion, will reduce the consumption of electricity, which is needed in large quantities for "mining". Proponents of this method are confident that since network validators will have less overhead during PoS operation, the level of ether inflation will also decrease.
Once Casper is activated on the network, Ethereum will begin to use a hybrid consensus algorithm that combines elements of PoW and PoS. Initially, consensus will primarily be achieved using PoW, but over time PoS will begin to receive more and more workload.
Ether is not the first cryptocurrency to experiment with a PoS algorithm, but critics argue that previous implementations have failed to provide adequate incentives for validators when they act honestly and proper penalties when they violate the protocol. Ethereum developers have spent years developing their PoS variant, and while it's still unclear when Casper will launch on the mainnet, it looks like updates are starting to give the network new shapes - and these developments could not have come at a better time.
According to CCN, the transition to PoS has become an even more pressing issue in recent months, after the Chinese mining device manufacturer announced the completion of the development of a chip for miners, making them compatible with the Antminer F3-ASIC mining algorithm.
According to https://www.ccn.com
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