The eth2 upgrade is a long process. It will take a while and there are still many things that need to be figured out. As of now, we can only say that the upgrade will be completed before 2023.

Beacon Chain

The beacon chain is the main chain, which means that it's the longest chain in this network. It also has to be longer than any other chain in order to be considered valid by miners and miners can only mine on top of a valid block if it's on top of their own blocks.

The beacon chain is what we'll refer to as "the parent" for this guide. That means that when you're following along with us, think about your wallet as being connected to this particular parent chain (so called because it's at one end), rather than any other individual node or network node like Ethereum Mainnet or Parity Frozen Accounts; these should be considered secondary sources and not primary sources because they don't have access over transactions themselves - they just store them until someone else comes along who wants them later on down the road when those transactions need processing again!

Casper FFG

Casper FFG is the first step of the process. It's a hybrid PoW/PoS consensus algorithm that is designed to transition Ethereum from PoW to PoS.

Casper FFG uses an approach called "parallelization," which means that it will run multiple instances of a contract in parallel across different networks at once. This allows for faster execution times and more flexibility when deploying new contracts on both public and private chains.

Sharding

Sharding is a way of splitting up the blockchain into smaller parts, so that it can be more scalable. The goal is to make it easier for miners to find blocks and verify transactions on different parts of the network.

Sharding will require new software and hardware, but this upgrade should only take about six months from now (by June 2020).

Accounts and keys

There are two types of accounts, the first is a public account and the second is a private account. The public account can be used to send transactions and the private account can be used to sign transactions.

The private key is not accessible to the public, it's only for use inside your wallet. The secret phrase will allow you access into your wallet but not all its functions unless you know this phrase!

Exchanges

Exchanges are a big part of the ecosystem. They are where you buy and sell cryptocurrencies, and they’re also where you can trade with other users in your local area.

Exchanges drive demand for new coins, as well as making it easier to conduct transactions with stored assets. This means that if your exchange stops accepting deposits, there will be less interest in purchasing new coins or transferring them from one wallet to another (or even just keeping them in cold storage).

Plasma and state channels

Plasma is a series of contracts that run on top of the Ethereum blockchain, which essentially means it’s a layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum. Like I mentioned above, Plasma is a series of smart contracts that run on top of the Ethereum blockchain and work together to create an infinitely scalable network. This means that each time there are more transactions than can be processed by one node (or if you want to be technical about it), then other nodes will take over processing certain pieces or parts of those transactions as needed.

Plasma uses incentivized miners who are paid in tokens or Ethers every time they perform their duties as “miners” in order to secure these networks through Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithm instead of Proof-of-Work consensus algorithm used by Bitcoin or Litecoin etcetera

There are two phases for it to be completed, so it will take a while.

Phase 1 of the upgrade is already complete. This phase saw the completion of all necessary infrastructure upgrades, including design and testing.

Phase 2 is ongoing and will take several months to complete. It is estimated that this phase will be completed in 2020.

Conclusion

The Beacon Chain is one of the key components of the Ethereum 2 project. It’s a new, faster version of Ethereum with some new features that will make it more scalable and easier to use in your everyday life. The Casper FFG algorithm will help speed up the process of finding blocks, reducing block times from 15 seconds per block to 3 seconds or less. With sharding enabled by default on all Ethereum accounts starting January 1st 2018 (until further notice), there will be more transactions per second on the network while at the same time keeping transactions private from each other. Lastly, accounts and keys are being integrated into Casper FFG so now you can actually send funds without having to give away any personal information about yourself or others around you!