On June 30, Ethereum developers delayed the network’s difficulty bomb via the Gray Glacier update, which means The Merge won’t happen at least until September 2022. Meanwhile, there’s now more than 13 million ethereum locked into the Beacon Chain worth $15.8 billion using today’s prices.
Over 13 million Ether worth $15.8 billion have been deposited into the Ethereum 2.0 contract
The ETH 2.0 contract saw more than 13,000,000 ETH deposited this week. There are currently 406,640 validators. The Ethereum (ETH), blockchain will eventually transition to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS). Currenty, the network uses a mix of proof-of work (PoW), and proof-of-stake (PoS) systems. According to current ETH exchange rates, 13,012,469 ether has been secured into the ETH2.0 contract. It is currently worth over $15.8 billion.
According to Dune Analytics stats, 13,000,000 ETH comes from 76.506 address deposits. This aggregate accounts for 10.88% of the total ETH supply. Lido is the liquid staking platform that holds 31.73%. Lido is not the only large staking service. Other companies such as Kraken and Staked.us are Stakefish, Bitcoin Suisse, Stakefish, Bitcoin Suisse, Figment, and Stakefish are also available. Although many believed the PoS Transition, also known as The Merge would occur in August, it has now been delayed by the difficulty bomb update.
Ethereum developers aim to avoid network degradation due to the premature activation of Difficulty Bomb
Gray Glacier was upgraded to Ethereum’s block height of 15,050,000 on June 30, which increases the difficulty bomb’s time back 100 days. “The Gray Glacier network upgrade changes the parameters of the Ice Age/Difficulty Bomb, pushing it back by 700,000 blocks, or roughly 100 days,” Ethereum developer Tim Beiko disclosed on June 16, 2022. “With Ropsten now transitioned to proof-of-stake, the difficulty bomb only affects the Ethereum mainnet. This means Gray Glacier will not be deployed on any testnet,” he added.
Additionally, Ethereum network fees remain low. As of the writing date, they are 0.0018ETH, or $2.16 for each transaction. A median Ethereum network fee today is 0.955 per data transfer or 0.00078ETH. Additionally, roughly 2,523,831 Ethereum worth $8.4 Billion has been lost since EIP 1559 was implemented on August 5, 2021.
Essentially, the difficulty bomb is a “Planned exponential increase in proof-of-work difficulty setting designed to motivate the transition to proof-of-stake, reducing the chances of a fork.” EIP 5133’s notes explain the motivation behind the delay is to “avoid network degradation due to a premature activation of the difficulty bomb.”
Do you agree with Ethereum developers delaying the difficult bomb? How soon do you anticipate Ethereum moving to a PoS-only chain? Please share your views on this topic in the comment section.
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