The Smart Contract associated with the Ethereum upgrade surpasses the 11 million ETH barrier amid expectations ahead of the arrival of The Merge.
Recent data reveals that the Smart Contract associated with "Ethereum 2.0" continues to add more support, surpassing the 11 million ETH deposited as collateral. The figure could suggest that the number of people interested in backing the new version of the Smart Contract network has grown.
Ethereum 2.0 was the name given to the Ethereum upgrade that would see the network abandon its current proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism for a proof-of-stake (PoS) one. The Contract for participation (staking), launched in late 2020, was the first step toward this evolution.
The Ethereum Foundation recently renamed the update to "Consensus layer," abandoning the name Ethereum 2.0 or ETH 2.0. While, in general terms, the community seems to refer to this phase arbitrarily and, in many cases, goes by the last name, it is worth noting that ultimately, once the network moves to PoS, it will continue to be called just "Ethereum."
Smart Contract for ETH 2.0 surpasses 11 million ETH
Data published by the block explorer Etherscan.io also reveals 11,107,700 ETH deposited there, with an estimated value of more than $38.122 million based on the current exchange rate.
Let's consider that each validator interested in backing the network must deposit at least 32 ETH (about $108,000 at current prices). A simple division yields an estimated 344,000 addresses that would be actively participating in the new system for block processing.
Ether becomes scarcer, and blocks get processed via PoS
The Smart Contract represents the starting point for version 2.0 of the network. Ethereum validators who sent funds for the specified amount will participate in the validation of the new blocks issued once this phase is activated.
Let's keep in mind that the development of Ethereum 2.0 continues its path progressively, so various teams are working to make it possible as soon as it is available. The transition to the new version of the network will take place after the arrival of The Merge, a key point at which it would change the paradigm for block processing. The mechanism will implement the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) method instead of the already known Proof-of-Work (PoW), the system it has operated since its inception.
It is worth noting that this new mining system would leave the rewards mainly for those who serve as network validators under this dynamic, reducing the issuance of new ETH directly. Users also expect that the price of Ethereum will go higher.
The Smart Contract race
Expectation about what the Ethereum update will offer is quite hot amid the competition in the ecosystem, among many other projects. Some will try to displace the most popular Smart Contract network by addressing problems mainly associated with scalability and transaction cost.
These include projects such as Avalanche (AVAX), Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), and Polkadot (DOT), whose operational proposals have already caught the attention of many developers and enthusiasts. The expectation here is to attract initiatives within the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) and the Non Fungible token (NFT) space, which currently capitalize on large volumes of operations.
However, the arrival of the final PoS version of Ethereum has no estimated date yet, so we, as users, can only look forwards to seeing how the dev teams work towards their objectives.