Ethereum’s Beacon Chain is one of the most significant upgrades to the Ethereum network in its history. The chain is a consensus layer that will handle a network of stakers, and will eventually merge with the mainnet, bringing much needed security, scalability, and reduced carbon footprint to the network.

In order to understand what the Beacon Chain can do for the network, it’s important to understand the problems that the network currently faces. Right now, Ethereum’s consensus layer is what’s known as a Proof-of-Work consensus layer, same as Bitcoin’s. This involved different nodes run by computers solving complex math problems in order to come to consensus and be able to produce the next block on the blockchain. While the system itself works fine, with a lot of users conducting transactions it becomes quite unwieldy.