Researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, a non-profit organization supporting Ethereum, Justin Drake, shared his insights on the social media platform X, reflecting on the genesis of Ethereum’s beacon chain, which launched on December 1, 2020. At the time, it had a modest start with 0.5 million ETH staked on day one and offered no immediate benefits to users through the parallel Proof of Stake (PoS) chain.
However, over the years, this modest beginning evolved into what Drake describes as one of the strongest foundational frameworks in blockchain technology. The beacon chain now boasts notable attributes, including 10,000 consensus participants, $125 billion in economic security, economic finality supported by Layer 1 slashing, the ability to recover from 51% attacks via Layer 0 slashing, and an impressive record of 100% uptime.
The researcher emphasized that no other blockchain operating under Proof of Work (PoW) or PoS comes close to matching these capabilities, highlighting the value of long-term strategy and perseverance in Ethereum’s development.
Looking forward, he identified a substantial opportunity to establish Ethereum as the primary settlement layer for the “internet of value.” Drake acknowledged that while the beacon chain has made remarkable progress, it is far from perfect, and ongoing improvements are essential in what a multi-year upgrade journey is.
He pointed out several priorities for the Ethereum Foundation, including enhancing censorship resistance and managing Maximal Extractable Value (MEV). Other areas of focus include enabling smaller staking deposits, improving delegation processes, achieving faster finality, optimizing issuance, and making full chain validation accessible even to low-power devices like smartwatches. Furthermore, the foundation is pursuing post-quantum security measures, full danksharding at the data layer (DL), and integrating native rollups at the execution layer (EL).
Drake expressed optimism that Ethereum has the potential to achieve all these goals. Many Layer 1 improvements will be implemented incrementally over the years, while more extensive changes, such as chain snarkification and post-quantum security, may require a holistic redesign. Complementing these Layer 1 advancements, Layer 2 solutions are expected to deliver considerable performance boosts on shorter timelines, potentially within months.
The beacon chain genesis happened four years ago on Dec 1, 2020. With a modest 0.5M ETH staked on day one, the parallel PoS chain provided zero immediate benefits to users. And yet the seed blossomed to become the strongest foundation blockchains have ever seen:
→ 10K consensus…
— Justin Ðrake 
(@drakefjustin) December 1, 2024
Justin Drake Introduces “Beam Chain,” Advancing Ethereum’s Evolution
Justin Drake recently shared another proposal aimed at enhancing Ethereum’s decentralization and addressing its aging infrastructure. During a presentation at the Devcon conference in Bangkok, Drake introduced his concept for the “Beam chain,” an innovative redesign of Ethereum’s transactional tracking infrastructure.
Drake described the “Beam chain” as a critical step in Ethereum’s evolution, emphasizing its role in moving the network closer to its ultimate vision. “The goal is to transition safely and swiftly from the current Beacon chain to this Beam chain, which aligns much more closely with Ethereum’s final design,” he explained.
This proposed update seeks to address foundational issues in Ethereum’s architecture while promoting greater decentralization, ensuring the network remains strong and scalable for future use cases. By refining the underlying infrastructure, the Beam chain aims to provide a streamlined, efficient system that supports Ethereum’s long-term objectives.
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