Ethereum's network traffic has exposed developers to new challenges with the biggest being speed and transaction fees. These problems are hectic but might introduce a premature and permanent solution to this adversity before it could get too late or complex to solve. It seems to be a good exposure as blockchains are yet to become the standard financial structure for society.
The bigger the network gets the more congestion it faces, slowing down the speed of the network. Blockchains are adopting different measures to avoid this such as Layer-2 platforms, Rollups, sidechains, newer block generating techniques, etc. However, a delegation of any sort can bring security risks so there is a new technique introduced called sharding.
Sharding is a blockchain distribution method that basically distributes the blockchains into smaller fragments of blockchain so that one single block doesn't have to distribute the entire network load. This means that any pending transactions do not have to wait for the next block in order to be finalized.
Sharding would allow a blockchain to distribute data into multiple but native blockchains that will not compromise the scalability, security, and decentralization of a blockchain. Every shard/node here will have to keep a small portion of the block instead of a full ledger.
In some cases, the nodes might only keep snapshots or proof of data instead of the actual data. These shards would be interconnected and faster with more periodic data to record. The selection of validators to verify the shard is random and sequential so every validator would get a chance and be incentivized when needed.
This solution is overall effective, fast, stable, and secure as compared to other scaling solutions out there. Even though in its early adoption phases many popular blockchains have modified sharding methods to befit their needs.
Ethereum 2.0 is said to adopt 64 shards with each shard having 100 validators, overall making the network exploit extremely difficult. The near protocol is also adopting sharding techniques in order to scale their blockchain and neglect the use of side-chains or delegated blockchain distribution.
