Historical retrospective · Ethereum
The Beacon Chain began Ethereum’s proof-of-stake transition
Ethereum launched the Beacon Chain on December 1, 2020 as a separate proof-of-stake network running alongside the proof-of-work mainnet.
It introduced validator coordination and consensus infrastructure before execution-layer history was merged into the new model.
The staged rollout reduced the risk of changing consensus and execution simultaneously.
The Beacon Chain launch was a first step, not the Merge itself; the distinction matters when describing Ethereum’s transition timeline.
Primary source
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