Ethereum 2.0 will start its rollout at noon on December 1. Today, at 12:00 PM UTC, Phase 0 will launch the beacon chain that will start the transformation from prooF-of-work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus. This beacon chain will run alongside the original PoW chain.
After nearly five years of promising and more than 2 years of work, ETH 2.0 is all set to launch despite the failure of the initial testnet. The launch of the beacon chain does not mean that ETH 2.0 is fully functional. It can’t handle accounts or smart contracts.
According to Ethereum Foundation, the Beacon Chain will conduct or coordinate the expanded network of shards and stakers. Its role will change with time.
As Crypto Economy reported, the initial date for the launch was scheduled for January 3rd, 2021. Then in an updated ETH 2.0 roadmap, it was rescheduled to December 1st. the beacon chain will also involve users in staking to activate validator software. 524,288 ETH was the threshold to reach genesis and, as reported, this threshold was achieved on November 24. But users can still stake their ETH holdings to earn block rewards.
The next step is Phase 1, in which the primary improvement is the integration of shard chains on Ethereum. Shards chains will increase the capacity of the network and improve transaction speed by extending the network to 64 blockchains. The beacon chain will pave the way for the shard chain upgrade to follow.
Phase 1 will be followed by Phase 1.5 in which Eth1 and Eth2 converge and the new blockchain should become broadly usable.
Crypto Exchanges Announce ETH 2.0 Support
As ETH 2.0 rollout is around the corner, leading cryptocurrency exchanges have also announced staking rewards for users who are holding their ETH assets on exchanges. On Monday, November 30, Coinbase announced that it would launch staking rewards for ETH 2.0 in early 2021. Surojit Chatterjee from Coinbase wrote:
“Coinbase intends to support ETH2 through staking and trading. Coinbase customers will be able to convert ETH in their Coinbase accounts to ETH2 and earn staking rewards.”
Huobi Global has also launched an ETH 2.0 One-Click Stake Function. Huobi announced:
“Huobi Global will support ETH2.0 proof-of-stake and will launch ETH2.0 one-click function. With this function, you can pledge ETH as BETH with one click and participate in ETH 2.0 proof-of-stake mining. Huobi Global will open BETH’s transaction at any opportunity according to the network status.”
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