Ethereum Beacon Chain Surpasses 300K Validators, Over $28 Billion in Ether Deposits Locked – Technology Bitcoin News

Another milestone has been reached by the Ethereum protocol. The number of validators for Ethereum 2.0 has now surpassed 300,000. The Ethereum 2.0 contract currently has more than 9.6 million ether deposited in excess of $28.4 Billion at the time this article was written.

Ethereum Beacon Chain Authenticators Reach the 300,000 Mark

Since a long time, Ethereum (ETH network participants) have been preparing for the transition from a Proof-of Work (PoW), system to a protocol that only relies on the consensus algorithm of proof-of Stake (PoS).

Since the beginning of Ethereum, a parallel system has been operating that uses PoW and PoS through the Beacon chain. Eventually PoW will cease to exist. Ethereum’s (ETH) value increased 107% year to date and ether is up 14.1% during the last two weeks. To become a validator, you will need 32 ether. This is $94,400 at the current ETH exchange rate.

As of February 28, the Ethereum 2.0 validaters have surpassed 300K, jumping to 300.702 validators. The number of validators increased by 9.11% since the beginning of the year from 275,594 to 300,702 validators. The Ethereum 2.0 smart contracts currently hold 9.68 million ether deposit worth more than $28.4 Billion. Each day deposits of exactly 32 Ethereum are being added to the deposit contract.

The Beacon chain was launched in December 2020 during Ethereum’s Serenity upgrade and there are two different types of validators called proposers and attestors. While proposers bolster the minting of new blocks, an attestor validates the block’s transactions. Instead of receiving ethereum blocks rewards from pools, validaters are awarded for stakes via the Beacon Chain.

Ethereum’s Hashrate Coasts Along at Record Highs, Arrow Glacier Delays Mining Difficulty Bomb

Currently, ethereum mining pools are operating at the highest levels during the course of the Ethereum network’s lifetime. Ethereum’s overall hashrate today is 1.08 petahash per second (PH/s) or 1,082,043,832,616,262 hashes per second (H/s). Hashrate calculations are derived by leveraging the average ether block time and the network’s mining difficulty.

While the numbers of ETH validators and deposits continue to grow, it is not clear when the transition from a PoS-based Ethereum 2.0 platform will take place. The Arrow Glacier delayed the mining difficulty bomb in December 2021. This would have prevented miners from using PoW. The transition from PoW to difficulty bomb (or motivated transition to PoS) was not completed until June 2022.

How do you feel about the milestone of 300K Ethereum validators? How do you feel about Ethereum 2.0’s upcoming transactions? Comment below and let us know how you feel about the subject.

Jamie Redman

Jamie Redman, a Florida-based financial journalist and news lead at Bitcoin.com News is Jamie Redman. Redman joined the cryptocurrency community in 2011 and has been an active member ever since. Redman is passionate about Bitcoin and open-source codes. Redman has contributed more than 5,000 articles to Bitcoin.com News since September 2015. These articles are about disruptive protocols that are emerging.