Ethereum Foundation Rebrands ‘ETH 2.0’ to ‘Consensus Layer’

In a Monday blog post, Ethereum Foundation announced the rebranding of 'Ethereum 1.0' and 'Ethereum 2.0.' In fact, the core developers have even stopped using the terminologies from late 2021, preferring ‘execution layer’ and ‘consensus layer’ instead.

The blog post highlighted that there could be confusion whether ETH 1.0 comes first and ETH 2.0 comes after or that once Ethereum 2.0 is completed, Ethereum 1.0 will cease to exist. In an effort to avoid this confusion, the foundation wants to do away with the word since the ETH 2.0 only acts as a network upgrade rather than a whole new separate protocol.

Once the upgrade takes place this year, there will no longer be two distinct networks, or even the concepts of ETH 1.0 and ETH 2.0. Instead, the two terminologies will simply be separate but integral components of the Ethereum network.

"By removing Eth2 terminology, we save all future users from navigating this confusing mental model. Being careful and accurate in our word choice allows content on Ethereum to be understood by the broadest audience possible," the announcement says.

The team also noted that another major reason for the rebranding was to prevent new users from being scammed in relation to the confusion by the numerical terms for Ethereum proof-of-work (PoW) and proof-of-stake (PoS) chains. Such scams involve tricking users into believing they must 'migrate' their ETH to ETH  2.0, resulting in loss of funds.

The foundation further emphasized that the change in terminology changes nothing in the roadmap to the major upgrade.