The Ethereum (TIKER: ETC/USD.BITFINEX) network will go through a hybrid stage of proof-of-work and staking. Mining Ethereum will remain viable for a while, but will start to be phased out, firstly by lowering the block reward for mining to 0.6 ETH, which makes almost 80% reduction, Trustnodes reported on Monday, April 2.
At the moment, the reward has already been lowered to 3 ETH, as a part of the Byzantium update.
Serving as a validator on the Ethereum network will happen through a Casper smart contract, where users would pledge their coins and set the size of their stake. The new proof-of-stake mechanics would serve to define which is the “canonical” blockchain.
The new staking mechanism would help resolve the conflict and point clients to the correct blockchain.
However the staking of Ethereum would be much less lucrative, with the final plan of receiving just 0.22 ETH per block. This is due to the much more economical nature of staking compared to mining.