Ethereum Merge – Why is Pre-Merge Called Execution Layer and Post-Merge Called Consensus Layer?

consensuseth-2.0the-merge

Doesn't the origin ethereum before the Merge have a consensus layer(the PoW consensus) too? If so, why it's called the execution layer now, and only the Merge is called the execution layer?

Best Answer

The Beacon Chain is the Proof of Stake consensus layer. Conceptually, the execution chain gets merged with the Beacon Chain:

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Source: https://github.com/ethereum/annotated-spec/blob/master/merge/beacon-chain.md#introduction

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