Following the Ethereum 2.0 (ETH 2.0) deposit contract launch announcement yesterday, 3.62% of the needed ETH has been already staked in the contract, while some are questioning how smart is it to lock away ETH 32 (USD 12,808) for years.
Fuelled by the news, ETH rallied from USD 383 to over USD 406 and is now correcting its gains, trading at USD 399 (10:43 UTC). The price is up by almost 5% in a day and 3% in a week. Additionally, per BitInfoCharts.com, active addresses (7-day simple moving average) went up 6.9% in a week, to 590,123. In the same period, the number of ETH sent from addresses increased by 7.3%.
As reported yesterday, the first phase of ETH 2.0, Phase 0, finally got a specific launch date – the developers announced that the genesis block of the so-called Beacon Chain is expected on December 1 at the earliest.
With the first phase, users will be able to earn rewards by locking up their ETH in the deposit contract, and by acting as active or passive validators. This deposit contract, said to be one of the final steps before Phase 0, also relevant as it will enable ETH transactions between Ethereum and ETH 2.0 – is now live.
Per the ETH 2.0 Launch Pad, there are currently “18,981 ETH already staked and counting.” This means that some ETH 505,300 more is needed for the mainnet to be launched.
Developers have also been warning users not to send their ETH to the deposit contract, as this “will result in a failed transaction, and does not mean you are staking on ETH 2.0.” The launchpad must be used instead.
However, Phase 0 will come only after there is enough ETH locked up in the smart contract, and this will then remain locked there for a couple of years.
