32 ether

ETH 2.0 Contract Exceeds 7.4 Million Ether, Close to $30 Billion Locked, Liquid Staking Pools Grow

06/09/2021 by Idelto Editor

The Ethereum 2.0 contract now has more than 7.4 million ether worth over $29.3 billion using today’s ether exchange rates. According to statistics, the smart contract address is the largest holder of ethereum out of all the wallets in existence.

Ethereum 2.0 Contract Nears $30 Billion

In the early days, the Ethereum (ETH) protocol was a 100% proof-of-work (PoW) blockchain but in more recent times, Ethereum is now a mix of proof-of-stake (PoS) and PoW. In time, the digital currency and smart contract network will be 100% PoS and this will be the main consensus algorithm that keeps Ethereum chugging along.

On November 6, 2020, Bitcoin.com News reported on the co-creator of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, adding $1.4 million worth of ether into the Phase 0 smart contract. Since then, the ETH 2.0 contract has swelled significantly. In July 2021, Bitcoin.com News reported on the Ethereum 2.0 contract exceeding six million ether. At the time on July 2, the six million ether was worth $12.4 billion using exchange rates from that day.

Today, according to Etherscan statistics, the Eth2 Deposit Contract holds 7,489,474 ether worth $29,366,901,606. The smart contract address is the largest wallet among the Ethereum rich list of wallets. The Wrapped Ether smart contract address is fairly close, however, with 6.9 million ether.

Ever since Buterin deposited the massive amount of ether he held into the ETH 2.0 contract address, deposits of 32 ETH are continuously deposited to this very day. In order to be a validator, 32 ether is required to join the ETH 2.0 staking community.

Behind the ETH 2.0 contract and Wrapped Ether wallet, includes wallets owned by Binance, Kraken, Gemini, Huobi, FTX exchange, and a few unknown ether billionaires. The ETH 2.0 smart contract has seen 150,980 transactions to date and the 7.4 million ether equals 6.37% of the entire circulating supply of ether.

1.3 Million Ether Is Locked in Liquid Staking Pools

A lot of the ETH 2.0 money locked in to the contract is being staked in prominent staking pools like Lido, Stkr, SharedStake, Stafi, Stakewise, Cream and Stakehound. These pool services have approximately 1,361,463 ether locked and Lido has the lion’s share of ether.

The Lido liquid staking pool has around 1,167,007 ether staking today, according to Dune Analytics stats. $5.35 billion of the overall $29.3 billion locked is being staked by large pools and that’s about 18.09% of the 7.4 million ether today.

In addition to the 7.4 million ether locked, to date, 216,229 ether has been burned after EIP-1559 was implemented. Using today’s exchange rates, that’s $729 million worth of the second-leading crypto asset by market capitalization.

What do you think about the 7.4 million in ether worth more than $29 billion locked into the Ethereum 2.0 contract? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Ethereum 2.0 Deposit Threshold Met: Proof-of-Stake ‘Beacon’ Chain Starts in 7 Days

24/11/2020 by Idelto Editor

The Ethereum network’s ETH 2.0 contract has crossed the threshold needed to initiate the upcoming upgrade. Currently, there’s more 694,368 ether worth over $422 million resting in the contract, as developers hope the proof-of-stake launch will begin on December 1.

At the end of the first week of November, the Ethereum Foundation initiated the first process of the highly anticipated Ethereum 2.0 (ETH 2.0) upgrade specifications, which detailed the initial rules of the genesis phase 0. The genesis phase 0 contract specification noted that there needed to be approximately 524,288 ETH and at least 16,384 validators to invoke the proof-of-stake process.

The requirements needed to kickstart Ethereum 2.0 for December 1, mandated that the threshold be met by November 24, 2020. Additionally, a web portal called Launch Pad was published so users can learn how to be an ETH validator and secure the blockchain.

The requirements needed to spark the genesis phase 0 process were officially completed on the 24th and there’s now 694,368 ether worth $422 million in the contract.

The contract address has seen approximately 16,736 transactions of around 32 ether per transaction. 32 ETH is what is needed to become a validator and earn a stake on the Ethereum chain. At the current exchange rate of $608 per ether, it costs close to $20k per staking validator. Roughly the last 25% of the ether needed to meet the threshold was deposited into the contract in less than a four-hour timespan.

Screenshot from an editorial called “The Genesis of a Beacon Chain” written by Ben Edgington.

Following the deposit milestone, a great number of Ethereum proponents and developers celebrated. “We reached it,” said Ethereum 2.0 R&D member Hsiao-Wei Wang. “Thanks to all the Eth2 teams and the community that wrote the history. And thanks to the Ethereum critics who made us stronger. Don’t forget to update your Eth2 client in a couple days,” Wang added.

The “Eth 2.0 Deposit Contract – Progress Meter Bot” also tweeted about the landmark occasion and stated:

We have liftoff. Thank you to the devs, the researchers, educators, and community members who made this happen. See you on December 1st @ noon UTC.

Many Ethereum supporters also understand that the Ethereum 2.0 genesis phase 0 will initially start with the “Beacon” blockchain, a baby-step that will make it so the upgrade will have less of an impact on the main network. The ETH 2.0 upgrade will start in seven days’ time and the Beacon chain will begin the first of four initial phases.

Estimates say that Ethereum 2.0 validators could earn about 20% in annualized rewards. After the requirements were filled, Ethereum proponent Tom Shaughnessy said that the Ethereum 2.0 launch “got more attention in an hour than every other layer 1 did this entire year put together.”

Ethereum Foundation member Hudson Jameson tweeted about how the Ethereum 2.0 Beacon chain launch will happen the day prior, and what needs to happen in order to create a successful launch.

“The beacon chain marks the beginning of the transition to Eth 2.0, but that doesn’t mean that everything immediately changes,” Jameson wrote. “Eth 2.0 is a multi-year process and the first few pieces of that process won’t heavily affect the current Ethereum mainnet.”

Jameson also stressed that whatever happens, the Ethereum community should be impressed with the Ethereum 2.0 development team. He also explained when he thought the Beacon chain launch would begin.

“My opinion (not an official stance of the Ethereum Foundation) is that we will launch between December 1st and December 5th,” Jameson concluded. “I base this on how quickly deposits are coming in as of the last 48 hours.”

At the time of publication, ethereum (ETH) is trading for $608 per ether, as the token has gained 26% during the last seven days and 49% in the last 30 days.

What do you think about the culmination of the highly anticipated Ethereum 2.0 launch? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

The post Ethereum 2.0 Deposit Threshold Met: Proof-of-Stake ‘Beacon’ Chain Starts in 7 Days appeared first on Bitcoin News.

ETH 2.0 Scheduled for December, Vitalik Deposits $1.4M Worth of Ether Into Phase 0 Contract

07/11/2020 by Idelto Editor

This December the cryptocurrency community may see the first introductory phase of the highly anticipated Ethereum 2.0 consensus change. On Wednesday, the Ethereum Foundation published ETH 2.0 specifications explaining how the genesis phase will be invoked. Moreover, on November 5, Ethereum’s cofounder Vitalik Buterin sent 3,200 ETH to the genesis phase deposit contract in order to begin staking after the shift.

For quite some time now, the ETH 2.0 transition was postponed and it seems the first phase is set to begin on or around December 1, 2020. The first stage of ETH 2.0 is often referred to as “phase 0” and Ethereum developers claim the transition will reduce energy consumption. The blockchain will also introduce shard chains, but most people these days are discussing how proof-of-stake (PoS) will be implemented.

Being a PoS blockchain, ETH owners will be able to stake their coins and run validator nodes. Anyone will be able to stake within the Ethereum network, as long as the owner owns a minimum of 32 ETH. According to the Ethereum Foundation, ETH 2.0 is shipping in phases and network participants can see the roadmap here.

ETH 2.0 Scheduled for December, Vitalik Deposits $1.4M Worth of Ether Into Phase 0 Contract — The phase 0 contract address on November 6, 2020.

On Wednesday, November 4, the Ethereum Foundation’s Danny Ryan published an update called “eth2 quick update no. 19.” The update shows the specifications for the phase 0 launch, which is expected to happen on or around December 1. Additionally, Ryan published the mainnet deposit contract address that will be used to trigger the staking deployment.

“To trigger genesis at this time,” Ryan wrote. “There must be at least 16,384 32 ETH validator deposits 7 days prior to December 1. If not, genesis will be triggered 7 days after this threshold has been met (whenever that may be).”

Ryan also detailed that the mainnet Launch Pad is up and running, and he stressed that people should make sure they leverage the correct deposit contract address. “Check, double-check, triple-check the deposit contract address before sending any funds anywhere,” Ryan stressed.

In addition to the announcement from the Ethereum Foundation, the cryptocurrency’s cofounder Vitalik Buterin has sent funds to the deposit contract address. According to the Etherscan data, Buterin sent 3,200 ETH ($1.4 million using today’s exchange rates) to the address. At the time of publication, there’s approximately 39,173 ether worth $17.3 million held in the ETH 2.0 contract address.

A number of Ethereum proponents are excited about the ETH 2.0 phase 0, but ETH 2.0 has had its share of skeptics as well. A Medium post called “The Real Challenge for Ethereum 2.0” written by Robert Greenfield IV notes that “plutocracy is a threat to ‘decentralized equity.’”

In the blog post, Greenfield says that the emerging blockchain sector might be “doomed to inherit the inequities of the traditional technology sector.”

Meanwhile, in another blog post author, Adam Cochran, shows seven reasons why “ETH 2.0 will create the next economic shift.”

Cochran further states:

The best reason for this growth, and one that only ETH 2.0 can really claim, is actual demand for the asset, as use for gas in a decentralized computer. With the release of ETH 2.0 (among other improvements) we’re going to see ETH drastically increase its tx/s and therefore its commercial and consumer viability. Gas clogs, high transaction costs, long wait times in dapps all go away, even in a busy market.

Meanwhile, the other roadmap phases (1 & 2) are expected to launch during the next few years and the network will likely operate a lot differently. Ethereum proponents hope that the phase 0 launch will be successful and everything will work smoothly according to plan.

With approximately 39,173 ETH in the deposit contract address today, the deposit address needs around 485,115 more ETH to initiate the trigger’s 524,288 ETH threshold.

What do you think about the Ethereum 2.0 launch expected to happen this December? Let us know in the comments section below.

The post ETH 2.0 Scheduled for December, Vitalik Deposits $1.4M Worth of Ether Into Phase 0 Contract appeared first on Bitcoin News.