ETH 2.0 was the informal name for a multi-phase upgrade to the Ethereum network that transitioned it from a Proof of Work (PoW) consensus mechanism to Proof of Stake (PoS) and introduced a new, more scalable architecture. In current terminology, this upgrade is usually described in terms of “the Merge” (the PoW-to-PoS transition) and the broader Ethereum consensus and execution layers.
Under the PoS design, validators stake ETH and help secure the network by proposing and attesting to blocks, earning rewards for honest behavior instead of relying on energy-intensive mining. Future scaling improvements are expected to come primarily from rollups and data-sharding, which allow Ethereum to handle significantly more transactions while maintaining decentralization and security.
