The staking threshold required to trigger the first phase of the much-anticipated ETH. 2.0 consensus change was reached yesterday with over 524,288 ETH deposited. The countdown to the roll-out of the ETH 2.0 beacon chain genesis, scheduled for Dec 1, has now begun, setting up Ethereum to become the world’s top Proof of Stake (PoS) network.
More than 2000 unique Ethereum addresses have contributed deposits over 700,00 ETH to the next iteration of the world’s largest smart contract network as per data from Dune Analytics.
These statistics show that Beacon Chain has already surpassed most top PoS blockchains in terms of the number of validators and depositors, even before the upgrade goes live on mainnet.
ETH 2.0 has now surpassed Tezos and Cosmos and is quickly catching up to rival platform Polkadot, which boasts over 7,000 nominators who delegate their tokens to validators.
Currently, the Beacon chain, which is the first of four phases leading up to the full implementation of ETH 2.0, has over 22,000 validators. Following the implementation of Phase 0 about a week from now, the network can add 900 validators per day.
Further Deposits Sent To The ETH 2.0 Contract
The ETH 2.0 deposit contract and the number of validators getting onboard the ambitious blockchain project is growing fast. About 25% of the ETH required to trigger the Beacon chain genesis was deposited in a matter of hours, with over 50% of the staked balance deposited in the last 48 hours.
More deposits are still flowing into the contract even after the threshold was reached, pointing to an indisputable vote of confidence in the Ethereum Foundation’s most ambitious upgrade yet.
So far it remains unclear where most of the transactions required to guarantee a Dec.1 launch of the ETH 2.0 beacon chain originated.
However, Alex Mashinsky, the CEO of crypto lending firm Celsius Network, has come out to say that his company contributed 25,000 ETH to the beacon chain cause. Mashinsky sourced the funds from Celsius’ pool of community assets.
“Users are putting in ETH, allowing the network to earn yield on it in many different ways. The 25,000 ETH contributed to the proof-of-stake Ethereum network will generate another source of yield for our community,” Mashinsky explained.
ETH 2.0 Gets $10 Million Stake Pledge
Staking on ETH 2.0 endured a slow start since the Nov 5 launch of the deposit contract. At first, ETH transfers were limited mostly to a few whales and industry insiders, with Ethereum Cofounder Vitalik Buterin being among the first to provide 32,000 ETH to the contract deposit.
However, the tide turned after deposits started closing in on the 524,288 threshold. Apart from Celcius Network, other prominent investment firms are beginning to take notice.
For instance, Dubai’s IBC Group, a private equity investment firm, recently announced an investment of $10M (21,000 ETH stake) in the upcoming launch of ETH 2.0.
