Ethereum 2.0 is expected to be released on December 1

According to a blog post from the Ethereum Foundation today, the first version of Ethereum 2.0 is expected to be released on December 1, as long as certain conditions are met. The upgrade moves the Ethereum network towards a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, which will allow Ethereum holders to stake Ethereum to help run the network, rather than mining blocks as is currently done.

As long as there are 16,384 validators on the network, ETH2.0 will be enabled at 12:00 PM UTC on December 1. Each validator needs to stake 32 Ethereum, currently worth $12,700, with a total stake of $209 million.

The Ethereum Foundation also released version 1.0 of the Ethereum 2.0 specification today. It shows a launchpad where users can sign up to become Ethereum 2.0 validators (people with a stake in the network) and the Ethereum 2.0 contract address (where funds will be deposited).

However, it is worth noting that funds should not be sent directly to the deposit contract, but rather they should be staked using the staking mechanism (via Launchpad). As ConsenSys pointed out on Twitter: "Remember: Do not send ETH to the deposit address! Sending Eth to this contract address will cause the transaction to fail and does not mean your deposit on Eth2 was successful."

ETH 2.0’s “Phase 0” will launch when validators stake around $200 million worth of Ethereum into ETH 2.0’s smart contracts , putting the blockchain into operation. But this is just the first step in a long process. Only a few years later will ETH 2.0 function like the ETH 1.0 mainnet does today. But if all goes well, it will be worth the wait. Today, Ethereum 1.0 processes around 14 transactions per second, a pain point for those trying to profit from the blockchain and complaining about its slowness compared to Ethereum 2.0, which could reach 100,000 transactions per second in the future .

The most aggressive estimate for the transition from Phase 1 to Phase 2 is two years and six months. Therefore, the full transition from ETH 1.0 to ETH 2.0 may take several years.

If people don’t put up about $200 million in ETH, the show won’t start. One problem could be the low staking yields offered by ETH 2.0 clients compared to the lucrative yields offered by new DeFi protocols based on ETH 1.0. It will be a long wait until stakers can withdraw their staked ETH from ETH 2.0 clients.

“The smartest money will probably wait and see for a while while they figure out exactly what ETH 2.0 will look like,” said Ethereum developer Ogilvy. He believes that if funds are short, ETH super fans and the Ethereum Foundation will fund the project.