What is Eth2 and Proof-of-Stake?

A primer on Proof-of-Work and hash rate gives you a soft landing on your path of better understanding what Proof-of-Stake is.

For starters, Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Stake serve the same purpose of securing the network and ensuring it functions autonomously. 

The only difference is how the end goal is achieved. 

While both will rely on supercomputers, Proof-of-Stake would, as the name suggests, require operators to stake a given amount of coins to qualify as a supercomputer or validator. A validator, if chosen, receives network rewards and earns an annual yield for their work of keeping the network secure. 

The network would randomly choose, from among a pool of validators, a winner to confirm transactions, rewarding them in the process. 

To increase the odds of being a block producer, the validator should increase the number of coins staked as this equates to "mining Power" or hash rate if it was a "Proof-of-Work" operation.

The much-talked-about ‘Eth2’ is the next era of Ethereum where the network would be powered not by miners but by validators. Ethereum will power off the ‘Proof-of-Work’ consensus machine for a `Proof-of-Stake’ order. 

Ethereum would switch to a Proof-of-Stake network in the next 1.5 to two years, depending on the network's readiness and the greenlights from the developer community.