Co-founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin has deposited around 3,200 ETH worth $1.4M for staking on the platform’s newly established deposit contract. The deposit contract is a middle ground between the network’s current proof-of-work consensus mechanism and its much-anticipated proof-of-stake leading to Ethereum 2.0. Its first phase is expected to launch on December 1, only if it amounts to minimum deposits.
Only 39,000 ETH Deposited out of 524,000: Buterin
Staking is a way of supporting a Proof-of-stake blockchain network by depositing funds for a period of time in return for rewards. The network doesn’t need to rely on miners like that of Bitcoin and the current Ethereum network.
A minimum of 32 ETH is needed to stake on the newly anticipated proof-of-stake blockchain. So far, only around 39,000 ETH has been deposited out of 524,000 needed for the Eth 2.0 Genesis block to launch.
If the needed 524,000 isn’t deposited before the launch, the Genesis block will be delayed for another seven days, and so on until the required funds are fully deposited.
According to a report by TrustedNodes, Buterin used his VB2 wallet to send a total of 3,200 ETH in 100 transactions, each of which carried only 32 ETH.
Fear of Centralization in Ethereum
Crypto analysts such as Adam Cochran have stated that the launch of Eth 2.0 will cause a supply shock in the market, overall a positive impact on the price of ETH. It’s also necessary to note that about 13% of ETH’s circulating supply needs to be staked to reach the current security level that Ethereum has with the PoW protocol.
Meanwhile, users are also speculating that a possibility of centralization in the network is also a cause of concern, due to the uncertainty in its volatility of ETH prices and the risks associated with losing users’ funds. In this sense, developers of Ethereum Core have been emphasizing that investors must make sure that they send the funds to the right address.
