Ethereum 2.0 Phase 0 has More Than Enough Staked ETH for Tomorrow’s Launch

Last week, the Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract gained the required number of Ethereum coins, or ETH needed to kick-off the blockchain’s transition to the Proof-of-Stake (PoS). Although the threshold has already been met, the Ethereum community didn’t back out from locking more ETH on the network. This demonstrates a strong level of confidence the community has for the long-anticipated Ethereum 2.0 or Serenity upgrade.

Eth2 Deposit Contract has Over US$500 Million ETH

According to the information on Eth2 Launchpad, there are presently 857,728 ETH staked on the deposit contract. This is more than 60 percent the stated threshold of 524,288 ETH and currently worth over US$518 million, following the growing price of the crypto at $605 on Coinmarketcap. An Ethereum 2.0 researcher at Ethereum Foundation, Justin Drake, commented on the development, saying:

“It is a fantastic display of confidence by the Ethereum community. […] I’m proud thousands of Ethereans felt compelled to lock their funds for many months to secure Eth2.”

It’s worth noting that these cryptocurrencies can’t be withdrawn from the network for at least two years later when Phase 1.5 is deployed. Tomorrow’s Eth2 Phase 0 launch marks the first step towards the transition of the current Ethereum blockchain to the PoS era. Phase 0 is expected to launch by 12 UTC on December 1. It will enable the Beacon Chain on the network, which acts as a backbone for Ethereum 2.0.

The highly anticipated Serenity upgrade is expected to undergo about four development phases before its completion. It’s estimated that these phases might take about two years (i.e., 2022). However, there are speculations that the network might take more time to be completed, as many hurdles may possibly be encountered while being deployed.

Ethereum Nodes Surpass Bitcoin’s

Besides the upcoming Eth2 Phase 0, reports on Monday also confirmed a growing number of Ethereum nodes during these times. Currently, Ethereum has about 11,137 nodes, while the largest blockchain network, Bitcoin, has only 10,981.