Those who sent their ETH into the contract knew that they would remain stuck until Beacon Chain merged with the mainnet. The term Eth2 creates a wrong mental model for new Ethereum users as it does not allow capturing what happens on the network.
The largest staking contract on Ethereum contains 8,641,954 ETH, equivalent to around USD 20.5 billion. Since it remains stuck on the network, no one can transfer it.
A Twitter user said that the Ethereum 2.0 Beacon Chain contract has billions of US dollars stuck inside it.
That staking contract is part of the Ethereum 2.0 Beacon Chain network, launched in November 2020. Nobody can transfer it until a new hard fork occurs on the network.
Surprisingly, the developers have not yet decided on the terms and date of the hard fork on the Ethereum network. However, those who sent their ETH to the contract knew that this would happen. A decision on the terms of that upgrade could come once Beacon Chain merges with the mainnet.
Beacon Chain is the primary step of Ethereum towards a proof-of-stake (PoS) mining consensus. The USD 20.5B worth of ETH trapped on the Beacon Chain shows the high demand and confidence in the upcoming Ethereum 2.0 network.
The transition to PoS Eth2 would be complete with the merger of the Beacon Chain on the Ethereum mainnet. According to Ethereum.org, the upgrade could be ready for the first or second quarter of 2022.
Ethereum Foundation Removes Eth2 and Eth1 Terms From Its Blog
The website of the Ethereum foundation no longer shows any reference to Eth1 and Eth2. The move from a proof-of-work (PoW) mining model to a PoS consensus mechanism could happen in the second or third quarter of 2022.
The foundation cited various reasons, including the wrong mental model for new users, prevention of scams, and clarity of staking.
According to the Ethereum Foundation, the term Eth2 did not concisely capture what happened on the network through upgrades. They stated that one of the main problems with that word is the wrong mental model created for new Ethereum users. The latter assume that Eth1 comes first and Eth2 comes after, or that Eth1 ceases to exist once Eth2 exists.
The blog points out that removing Eth2 saves all future users from navigating that confusing mental model.
This year promised to be bullish for cryptocurrencies, but the current decline in the stock and crypto markets hit the price of ETH. The cryptocurrency is currently trading at around 2,588 and has accumulated a loss of 4.0% in the last seven days. Its daily trading volume is above USD 8.81 billion, and its market capitalization is about USD 308.83 billion, according to CoinGecko.
The fusion of the execution layer (Eth1) and the consensus layer (Eth2) will only receive the name Ethereum. In the meantime, individual features like Beacon Chain, fusion, and sharded chains will simply be upgrades.
By Alexander Salazar
