The Ethereum Sharding Meeting is scheduled on July 01, 2018. It is the first developer conference after Vitalik Buterin announced the combination of Casper and Sharding updates. The decision was taken at the Ethereum Core Developer meeting on June 15, 2018. Casper was to initially launch as a smart contract on the network. It will now release as a smart contract.
The main agenda of the meeting is to review developments made so far on Casper and sharding. The first presentation at 10 am begins with updates on sharding Client implementation. This will be followed by Vitalik Buterin speaking on the Beacon Casper chain along with Justin Drake. Similarly, the two developers will also propose the use of BLS signature aggregation. It as a medium-term solution to the verification bottleneck of sharding and Casper. Justin Drake will later give a presentation on cryptographic proof of custody The meeting will conclude with a discussion on sharding requirements and Casper. Ethereum developers will discuss ideas on how to manage the combined launch of sharding and Casper.
Casper and Sharding are important for Ethereum
Casper protocol was proposed by Vitalik Buterin and Virgil Griffith in a research paper released in November 2017. The protocol would likewise enable ethereum to switch from a Proof of Work (PoW) consensus algorithm to Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus algorithm. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has always been a critic of centralization. Hence he believes that in a PoW consensus algorithm, there is a risk of some nodes gaining control of the network by combining their computational resources. Casper would improve existing Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) algorithm. It will introduce new features such as accountability, defences, dynamic validators and modular overlay.
Full nodes validate new transactions on the ethereum blockchain. These miners are responsible for ensuring the efficient and smooth running of the network. Every full node validating a new block of transaction makes the network more secure but it comes at the cost of speed and efficiency. It proposes to divide the ethereum blockchain into small shards and miners would be responsible for verifying only select transactions. As a result, the ethereum blockchain can handle more transactions in lesser time.
