Deeper dive into Ethereum 2.0: Part 1

So you have made it here after reading through the Beginner’s guide to Ethereum 2.0! Are you ready to learn more about Ethereum 2.0? The following advanced sections will go into detail on how exactly Proof of Stake works and how some of the staking numbers are calculated. There are plenty of links to the relevant source materials, so you can start your own journey down the rabbit hole!

Time on Ethereum 2.0 Proof of Stake is divided into slots and epochs. One slot is 12 seconds. One epoch is 6.4 minutes, consisting of 32 slots. One block can be created for each slot.

The first slot of every epoch is a checkpoint where prior blocks can become justified and finalized.¹ The exact mechanism on reaching finality will be discussed in the “Proposing and attestations” section.

There are two sets of keys in Ethereum 2.0, a withdrawal key and a signing key. The signing key is responsible for signing the actions that your validator will need to perform on the network. Since validators will need to perform duties every epoch, your signing key will always need to be online. Being constantly online increases the probability of getting compromised. Therefore, in order to mitigate this risk, the power to control the funds on your validator is held in the withdrawal key. Your withdrawal key can be put in cold storage until you need to move your funds.

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