The solution of moving to ETH 2.0 may be to keep the running of ETH 1.0 as a shard of the new network. Recently, Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, has explained his intention for another approach to integrating ETH 1.0.
https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/1210035542852882435
The approach, which is still a technical proposal, may bring ETH 2.0 earlier than intended, but also allow the current version to coexist. The decision to take this path is still hypothetical, as the previous intention of Buterin was to seamlessly move to ETH 2.0, while taking over all the functionalities of the current network.
However, recent events showed that the evolution of Ethereum is not harmless to all the projects that chose the platform. Even the improvements of the Istanbul hard fork broke some smart contracts and caused the need for some projects to re-issue their tokens.
A change in ETH 1.0 would also mean all the projects and smart contracts can be exposed to unexpected events. The other threat is to have miners continue with a rogue Ethereum blockchain, meaning a split in all tokens and projects, potentially causing a loss of value and extreme confusion.
The launch of a rogue blockchain is similar to the threat for Bitcoin in 2017, when the SegWit2X version threatened to appear as a branch of the official chain. But the branching did not materialize, and BTC now exists on a single chain.
However, Ethereum aims to switch to staking, while miners may still choose to run the protocol with a disabled difficulty time bomb.
Ethereum has also received criticism that staking would lead to extreme influence for large-scale coin owners. Since DeFi schemes and lending tend to accumulate ETH, as well as exchanges, staking may be stacked in favor of those “whales”.
ETH market prices have also turned downward toward the end of 2019, marking a small net loss for the year so far. ETH traded at $126.01, with bearish predictions for the coming days.
