Isn't the basic idea of ETH still "distributed computer" a.k.a. "pointless redoing every computation over and over" albeit with 2.0 it's sharded (i.e. only a subset of verification nodes redoing each computation)?
Still sounds wasteful, except slightly less massively so.
That's accurate, although Eth 2 is planning to use fairly small shards (128 nodes according to the current spec). So there should be ~128 nodes redoing each computation, vs several thousand in Eth 1.
Some newer projects (including the one I work on, mirprotocol.org) are using cryptographic proofs to verify each computation, to avoid re-execution entirely.
Proof of stake does not have the same security properties as proof of work. The arguments are too complicated for me to usefully communicate them in a short HN post, but as a heuristic just keep in mind that most cryptocurrencies haven't adopted PoS despite it facially seeming better/"less wasteful".
Given that ETH is the second biggest cryptocurrency it will be a great stress test of the security properties of proof of stake.
Honestly if it runs successfully for multiple staking periods I don't think there will be much of an argument for PoW cryptocurrencies that aren't the dominate coin in their respective type of work. Essentially all coins that share a proof of work with a larger coin are constantly at risk of a 51% attack. We've seen it before with bitcoin forks.
Proof of work's security properties are broken for everything that isn't BTC, ETH (although this will change soon) and whatever the dominate CPU coin is (Monero?)
> Proof of work's security properties are broken for everything that isn't BTC, ETH (although this will change soon) and whatever the dominate CPU coin is
PoW secures any coin that dominates the daily issuance of all coins (efficiently) using the same hardware. So the different hardware classes are
> most cryptocurrencies haven't adopted PoS despite it facially seeming better/"less wasteful"
Most post-launch cryptocurrencies were designed a long time ago, though. If you look at recent credible projects, most involve proof of stake: NEAR, Solana, Coda (Mina), Cosmos, Celo, Polkadot, etc.
I can only think of a couple recent blockchain designs based on proof of work: Grin and Iron Fish.
You're right, but that's only the case right now. Incredible effort has been and continues to be made on making PoS secure, scalable, and distributed.
I'm not aware of any insurmountable problems having been found. With Eth2.0 steadily approaching launch and other networks in various stages of progression, it seems increasingly unlikely we'll find one.
Still sounds wasteful, except slightly less massively so.