Vitalik Buterin Publishes Sharding Proof of Concept

Vitalik Buterin of Ethereum Ethereum Ethereum is an open source, blockchain-based distributed computing platform and operating system featuring smart contract functionality. Created in 2014, Ethereum now stands as the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap at the time of writing.As a decentralized cryptocurrency network and software platform, Ethereum represents the most prominent altcoin. Ethereum also enables the creation Distributed Applications, or dapps. Understanding EthereumEthereum boasts its own programming language, Ethereum is an open source, blockchain-based distributed computing platform and operating system featuring smart contract functionality. Created in 2014, Ethereum now stands as the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap at the time of writing.As a decentralized cryptocurrency network and software platform, Ethereum represents the most prominent altcoin. Ethereum also enables the creation Distributed Applications, or dapps. Understanding EthereumEthereum boasts its own programming language, Read this Term has published a proof of concept for a sharding update of the Ethereum Blockchain Blockchain Blockchain comprises a digital network of blocks with a comprehensive ledger of transactions made in a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or other altcoins.One of the signature features of blockchain is that it is maintained across more than one computer. The ledger can be public or private (permissioned.) In this sense, blockchain is immune to the manipulation of data making it not only open but verifiable. Because a blockchain is stored across a network of computers, it is very difficult to tampe Blockchain comprises a digital network of blocks with a comprehensive ledger of transactions made in a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or other altcoins.One of the signature features of blockchain is that it is maintained across more than one computer. The ledger can be public or private (permissioned.) In this sense, blockchain is immune to the manipulation of data making it not only open but verifiable. Because a blockchain is stored across a network of computers, it is very difficult to tampe Read this Term.

Sharding is a way to solve issues with the scalability blockchain, meaning, how well the system can operate as its scale and workload increases. Ethereum uses a proof of work system, meaning that all transactions must be processed by all nodes in the system. This is the system used by the original cryptocurrency and is a tried and tested way of upholding the integrity of the blockchain, but it makes the network heavy and slow. Many solutions to this problem have been proposed and launched - larger blocks, child blockchains and the Lightning Network are just some examples.

Sharding, as the name implies, basically means that the blockchain will be fragmented, lightening the workload of validation nodes. At the beginning of 2018 the Ethereum Foundation launched two research and development programmes to develop sharding protocols, funded by subsidies of between $50,000 and $1 million.

The most recent proof of concept discusses a mechanism that can be "bolted on top of the current ethereum main chain".

A proof of stake-powered beacon-chain will be tied to the main chain. The beacon will act as a heartbeat, issuing new shard-blocks every 2-8 seconds. These new blocks will randomly suggest a node to verify it, and that node will have the choice of creating a shard collation or not.

The verifying node is randomly chosen but the randomness is affected by that node's activity. This is the hallmark of the proof of stake consensus system. Apart from lightening the workload of the network, it has the added advantage of ensuring its stability because nodes with higher stakes, and thus more incentive to maintain the system, have more chance of being selected to verify transactions.

It should be noted that each new block, of any type, will be dependent on a block from the main chain. However the main blockchain does not personally verify every transaction - they are verified by proxy; that is, by randomly selected validators.

Buterin adds: "A not yet fully solved challenge is determining how to incentivize and when to allow cross-links."