From PoW to PoS: The Historic Turning Point of Ethereum
To understand the evolution of the modern staking ecosystem, it is essential to trace back the technological changes in the Ethereum network. Launched in 2015, Ethereum's most significant innovation compared to the Bitcoin network was the introduction of smart contracts, enabling developers to build decentralized applications on-chain. However, early Ethereum adopted the same proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism as Bitcoin. While this competitive mining approach is secure and reliable, it led to three major issues: limited transaction throughput, high network fees, and enormous energy consumption.
In December 2020, Ethereum launched the Beacon Chain, marking the official start of the transition to proof-of-stake (PoS). After two years of stable operation, the "Merge" event in September 2022 completed this historic shift, and Ethereum officially became a proof-of-stake blockchain. The security of this migration has been validated—the network downtime was only 0.0