Overview
Launched in December 2020, the Beacon Chain was the first step in Ethereum's transition to Proof of Stake. It ran in parallel to the original Ethereum Proof of Work chain for nearly two years, managing the registry of validators and the consensus process without processing any actual user transactions.
Functions
- Managing Validators: Handling the staking of ETH and the selection of validators to propose and attest to blocks.
- Consensus: Running the Casper PoS protocol to reach agreement on the state of the network.
- The Merge: In September 2022, the Beacon Chain 'merged' with the execution layer (the original chain), becoming the official consensus engine for all of Ethereum.
Significance
The Beacon Chain enabled Ethereum to reduce its energy consumption by over 99.9% and paved the way for future scaling upgrades like sharding.