Ethereum is about to get a big update, and it's called Dencun. Or Deneb. Or Cancun. Or Proto-Danksharding...

Yeah, Ethereum tends to have pretty bad and pretty confusing marketing. Things usually make sense once you dig into the details, but it's a nightmare for anyone who isn't a hardcore Etherean. It's almost as if everything has been deliberately designed to bamboozle -- including things as simple as naming an update.

So, how did we get here? Why do Ethereum's updates seem to have so many different names?

Two Layers, Two Names

As you might expect of Ethereum, most of the naming confusion comes from something that is -- potentially -- even more confusing.

Ethereum is actually made up of two separate layers: the Execution Layer and the Consensus Layer. Therefore, each Ethereum update is actually a pair of updates, one for each layer. And each of those updates gets its own name and follows its own naming convention.

Why Two Layers?

Ethereum's unusual, layered design comes from its transition from Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (PoS).

Without going into too much detail, PoW and PoS are just different ways of deciding how a blockchain should be updated with a new batch of transactions.

Ethereum started life as a PoW chain but felt that PoS was a better fit that would help it achieve its long-term ambitions. So, years after it first launched, Ethereum took the unprecedented step of transitioning from PoW to PoS.

The developers decided that the simplest and safest way to accomplish the transition was to build an entirely separate blockchain that just did PoS. This new chain ran in parallel to the existing Ethereum blockchain and, for a long time, there was very little interaction between them.

Then, when everything was ready, the two chains were merged. PoW stopped on the existing Ethereum chain, and the new PoS chain effectively 'absorbed' the old blockchain and became responsible for updating it.

In this way, Ethereum became a single entity operating under PoS. But, if you look closely, you'll see that there is still a small separation between the two elements. Where it was once two separate blockchains, it is now two separate layers.

Today, the old Ethereum blockchain is known as the 'Execution Layer'. This is where most of the activity happens. It's where smart contracts live and transactions take place. Meanwhile, the PoS chain is known as the 'Consensus Layer', and it pretty much only does PoS to decide which block comes next.

(If you want to learn more about the shift to PoS, check out my in-depth explanation here)

What's In A Name?

As mentioned earlier, updating Ethereum means updating both the Execution Layer and the Consensus Layer. Each of those updates has a different name and follows a different naming convention.

Execution Layer Updates

Execution Layer updates are named after cities that hosted an Ethereum conference called DevCon.

The Ethereum Foundation's Alex Beregszaszi suggested this naming pattern in mid-2019, first on the Ethereum Magicians forum and then in an All Core Devs call. He argued it would provide an almost endless list of names while eliminating any potential debates or squabbles about how things should be named.

DevCon has been held all over the world and its location changes each year. Previous host cities include Berlin, Osaka, and Bogotá. The next one (at the time of writing) will be held in Bangkok.

The most recent Execution Layer upgrade was called Shanghai, which hosted DevCon 2. The next update is named Cancun after the city that hosted DevCon 3. Then we'll have Prague, as it hosted DevCon 4, and so on.

Consensus Layer Updates

Consensus Layer updates are named after stars and go in alphabetical order. So, the first update was named after a star beginning with A, the second after a star beginning with B, and so on.

I'm not sure who initially suggested the idea, but the star-based names proved popular among Consensus Layer developers and the Ethereum community.

Of course, the less proscriptive naming convention compared to the Execution Layer means a decision is still required for each update. After all, there are a lot of stars out there that could lend their name to an update.

Generally, people will discuss possible names in places like the Ethereum Magicians forum (like this or this), before a final name is decided based on rough consensus in an All Core Devs Call.

So far, updates have been named Altair, Bellatrix, and Capella. The update in March is called Deneb, after a star in the constellation of Cygnus. The next Consensus Layer update after that will be called Electra.

Combining The Names

That leaves each Ethereum update with two different names -- which might confuse people. So, to try and help the situation, Ethereans decided to "simplify" things by creating a third name that combined the other two.

It seems that the idea to create a portmanteau to refer to the overall Ethereum upgrade was first proposed by Protolambda, an Ethereum researcher now working at Optimism Labs. (He's the 'Proto' in Proto-Danksharding, by the way).

As the names could be combined in a variety of different ways, there is usually another round of discussions on forums and in the All Core Devs Calls before a decision is made about what the 'official' portmanteau should be.

This has resulted in names like Shapella, which comes from combining the Execution Layer upgrade name 'Shanghai' with the Consensus Layer upgrade name 'Capella'. Similarly, the next update Dencun is the portmanteau of Deneb from the Consensus Layer and Cancun from the Execution Layer. Then we'll have Pectra, from Prague and Electra. However, because this can be difficult to pronounce properly, some people are "simplifying" things again by using yet another name: Petra (like the city).

Other Names

So, this naming system is already getting quite complicated. But there are still more complexities to throw into the mix.

In addition to the three 'official' upgrade names -- one for each layer, plus the portmanteau of the two -- people will sometimes use other names to refer to certain updates.

For example, some people are just talking about Proto-Danksharding when they're talking about Dencun. Or, they might use terms like 'The Merge' when referring to another update. So, what's that about?

Well, it kind of comes from the scale that people are focused on.

Small Scale: EIPs

Just as every high-level Ethereum update is actually a pair of updates rolled into one, each update is also formed of several smaller changes.

These small changes are called Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs). (Technically, the large-scale updates like Dencun are also EIPs, but they're a special kind called a 'Meta EIP' because they are an EIP about integrating other EIPs).

Dencun, for example, contains 9 different EIPs. Five affect the Consensus Layer, and seven affect the Execution Layer.

EIPs have their own lifecycle and governance process that we can go into another time. What matters here is that each of the Proposals has its own specific purpose, and each is assigned a number that results in a standardised name like 'EIP-1234'.

Most of the time, nobody outside of the developer community pays much attention to these proposals. But, occasionally, someone will make an Improvement Proposal that is particularly exciting to a large audience of Ethereans.

One example would be EIP-1559, which dramatically changed Ethereum's fee markets to improve both UX and monetary policy (check out my piece on EIP-1559 here). Another example is EIP-4844, which is included in Dencun. This update will introduce a new type of transient storage and will be a giant leap towards Ethereum's goal of being the best foundation for Layer Two platforms (learn more about EIP-4844 here).

In addition to gaining a mass following, some particularly exciting EIPs may be given snappier, unofficial names as people discuss and promote the change. For instance, EIP-4844 is better known as Proto-Danksharding.

These particularly exciting and much-hyped EIPs often come to overshadow everything else that is included in an update with them. In fact, some people might refer to a specific EIP when talking about an overall network update.

People didn't really talk about the 'London' upgrade, for example. No, they just talked about EIP-1559, despite London including four other EIPs. Similarly, today, people tend to talk about Proto-Danksharding rather than Dencun.

Large Scale: The Ethereum Roadmap

It's not just the individual, small-scale changes that can come to dominate and unofficially lend their name to an overall network upgrade. The stages of Ethereum's large-scale, long-term roadmap can do the same. This is where terms like 'The Merge' and 'The Verge' come from.

Ethereum's founder Vitalik Buterin created a loose roadmap for the platform and updates it annually.

This roadmap divides protocol changes into rough groups named 'The Merge', 'The Surge', 'The Scourge', 'The Verge', 'The Purge', and 'The Splurge'. Collectively, they are sometimes called 'The Urges', and Bankless recently did a lengthy episode explaining all of them.

Again, the details of these changes aren't particularly important here. What matters is that certain Ethereum updates are so significant in delivering one of the 'Urges' that they may be represented by the 'Urge' name.

For instance, the Paris network upgrade saw the merging of the two Ethereum blockchains and the transition to Proof of Stake discussed earlier. While it didn't complete the entire 'Merge' section of Vitalik's roadmap, it delivered the most significant part of it. Therefore, people generally used the name 'The Merge' instead of 'Paris' when talking about this upgrade.

The upgrade after Pectra will probably introduce Verkle Trees to Ethereum. This will be a massive step towards delivering 'The Verge', and so I expect a lot of people will use that name instead of the official one.

Summary

So, that's how Ethereum upgrades end up as a confusing mess with multiple names.

Each network upgrade is really two upgrades, one for each of Ethereum's layers. Because those layer-level upgrades each have their own name, the overall upgrade takes its name from the combination of the two.

Meanwhile, unofficial names can take hold for certain, particularly exciting changes. Sometimes, these names come from individual EIPs; low-level changes that may be just a small portion of an overall update. Other times, the name comes from Ethereum's large-scale roadmap.

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