A technical handbook on Ethereum's move to proof of stake and beyond.

This is a book for those who want to understand Ethereum 2.0 – Ethereum on proof of stake – at a technical level. What does it do? How does it work? Why is it like this?

Who am I writing for? For people like me! People who enjoy understanding how things work. But more than that, who like to know why things are the way they are.

Although I am an Eth2 staker, and an Ethereum user, I am not writing primarily for stakers or users here. Some of the generic material on Staking may be relevant (once I have written it), but you will find better help in places like the excellent Ethstaker community.

The scope of the book concerns (what I consider to be) the Ethereum 2.0 protocol. Ethereum 2.0 has become a less well-defined term recently. But for me, it broadly includes,

• all things proof of stake and the beacon chain,
• the process of The Merge at which Ethereum 1.0 moves to proof of stake,
• in-protocol data sharding, and
• an array of potential future enhancements.

I will not be covering any of the historic Ethereum 1.0 protocol, except as it touches upon The Merge. The Mastering Ethereum book is an excellent resource, and there is no point in duplicating it. Although roll-ups and other so-called layer 2 solutions have rapidly become part of the overall Ethereum 2.0 narrative, they are by definition not in-protocol, and I will not be covering them here. I will not be discussing, DeFi, DAOs, NFTs, or any of the wonderful things that can be built on top of this amazing technology.