The Ethereum Foundation made the announcement on November 24 that the developers working on the platform had reached a consensus on eight Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIP) to investigate as part of the Shanghai update. This update is the next major upgrade following the Merge and the transition to proof-of-stake consensus.
Beacon Chain staked Ether (ETH) is scheduled to be unlocked as one of the primary features that are anticipated to be included in the Shanghai hard fork. This will make it possible for the assets to be withdrawn along with the upgrade, which means that users who had staked Ethereum prior to the Merge will be able to access those tokens in addition to any other rewards that may be available.
According to a prior roadmap, unlocked ETH was supposed to become available between 6 and 12 months following the Merge.
One of the ideas that was accepted is known as EIP 4844. This proposal focuses on using proto-danksharding technology, and it is anticipated that it would increase network throughput while simultaneously reducing transaction costs, which will be a big gain for scalability.
Other EIPs, such as EIP 3540, EIP 3670, EIP 4200, EIP 4570, and EIP 5450, deal with the modernization of Ethereum Virtual Machines.
One of the most-anticipated updates for the community is the Shanghai testnet version, which was given the name Shandong and went live on October 18. This version enables developers to work on implementations such as the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) object format. This update is one of the most-anticipated updates because it separates coding from data, which may be beneficial for on-chain validators.
With knowledge being a flywheel for Ethereum (ETH), the Ethereum Foundation has deemed it fit to explore the network’s potential through academic research by releaseing a new wave of grants worth $750,000.
“This grants round aims to support formal research on Ethereum and related domains while bringing more actors into the ecosystem. The more knowledge and research is shared among the global community; the more Ethereum can evolve to make a greater and positive impact.”
This decision was reached because the Ethereum Foundation noted that the academic community should advance the ETH ecosystem.
Therefore, the foundation has asked all those interested in ETH research, such as PhD students, research centres, and academics, to submit project proposals because this approach is seen as a stepping stone towards solving major problems.
Furthermore, the funds will be channelled towards systemic, scientific, and formal research, as well as open-source content aimed at Ethereum.
The Ethereum ecosystem has evolved tremendously, transforming arts and culture and changing the economics and finance context. For instance, it is one of the sought-after blockchains in the booming non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralized finance (DeFi) sectors.
The Ethereum Foundation has been revamping the ecosystem, given that it recently rebranded Ethereum 2.0 to the consensus layer so that a broader audience could comprehend its content because it previously triggered an inaccurate representation.
The advancement of the Ethereum network calls for more measures beyond protocol development, like a critical shift in terminologies used, the foundation added.
The consensus layer continues to gain steam because validators recently hit the 300,000 mark. It is seen as a game-changer that will transition the current proof of work (PoW) framework to a proof of stake (PoS) consensus mechanism, deemed more cost-effective and environmentally friendly.
Ethereum 2.0 is one of the most-anticipated upgrades in crypto presently. The upgrade which will bring better scalability and cheaper prices to the network is nothing short of needed given that demand has driven these two things to its brink on the network. This is why Ethereum developers have been hard at work for two years trying to usher in this new era.
However, it seems that the name ETH 2.0 is no longer doing justice to the upgrades being performed on the network. In a recent announcement, Ethereum Foundation announced that it is retiring the name ETH 2.0 in favor of something that better describes the work being done on the network.
ETH 2.0 Is Now Consensus Layer
In a blog post on its official website, the Ethereum Foundation announced its decision to change the name of the upcoming upgrade from ETH 2.0 to the “Consensus layer”. The post explains that the reason for this was the need for terminology that clearly embodies the changes that were being made to the network.
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ETH 2.0 had worked while at the beginning when the goal was simply to move users from the present proof of work chain, also known as ETH 1.0, to the new proof of stake mechanism. The goal has changed drastically since then.
For the total completion of the upgrade, developers had discovered that it would take several years to complete. Additionally, the upgrade had evolved at various points to make changes focused on the long-term rather than just moving to the proof of stake mechanism.
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ETH climbs back to $2,400 | Source: ETHUSD on TradingView.com
The new terminology provides a better understanding of what is being done on the network. This way, users are no longer confused when it comes to distinguishing between the two. This would greatly reduce scams that take advantage of the confusion generated by the terminology by asking them to swap their ETH for ‘ETH2’. It would also clear up the confusion that arises with staking, where stakers might believe they might be getting ‘ETH2’ tokens and not ETH tokens.
How Is Ethereum Price Affected?
The announcement of the new terminology has had no bearing on the value of the altcoin in the market. Ethereum which had suffered greatly in the crash, losing about 40% of its value, has trended upward in the last day. However, the change in value remains insignificant as ETH is still a long way away from hitting the $3,000 point. Prompting users to speculate that the bear market is here.
Related Reading | Market May Be Suffering But Bitcoin And Ethereum Will Pull Back Stronger, Bloomberg Analyst
As for ETH 2.0, now known as the “Consensus layer”, it is still unknown if the scheduled merge will actually take place this year. The project has so far been rocked by delays as devs encounter new issues. But for now, the upgrade remains on track.
As per the announcement, the ethereum base layer, also known as ETH1, will now be called the execution layer. While ETH 2.0 will be referred to as the consensus layer. Both of these layers combined are what make up the Ethereum blockchain.
Featured image from Forkast, chart from TradingView.com
Apparently, the Ethereum Foundation employs incredible traders. Once again, they managed to cash out at the very top. On November 16th, ETH was worth an all-time high of $4891. On the very next day, the Ethereum Foundation sent 20,000 ETH to Kraken and sold them. Is this suspicious at all? Not per se, but this is the second time that they pull the same magic move.
Related Reading | Why The Ethereum Foundation Launched A Client Incentive Program
A professional trader that goes by the name Edward Morra on Twitter was the first to spot the trade. “Friendly reminder that ETH foundation cashed out at the top (again). ETH down 40+% since then,” he said. Morra also provided a chart that shows ETH’s sharp decline in price since the sale.
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$ETH
Friendly reminder that ETH foundation cashed out at the top (again). ETH down 40+% since then pic.twitter.com/Bp80hEDvK0
— Edward Morra (@edwardmorra_btc) January 21, 2022
To add insult to injury, the Ethereum Foundation only paid $20 in gas fees. That might be the most impressive feat of them all.
At the time of writing,the Ethereum Foundation’s walletholds 353,318 ETH, which is approximately $835K at current prices.
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What Do We Know About The Organization’s Previous Sell-Off?
Back to Morra, his Twitter followers told him that this information was of no use to them this late in the game. The trader surprised the world and pulled an ace up his sleeve. As it turns out, Morra tweeted about the trade at the time it happened. Not only that, he warned them, “They cashed out 35k ETH on 17th of May this year, marked on the chart.”
Casual 20k ETH cashout by EthDev, sent to Kraken:https://t.co/w6AbdeW2AJ
They cashed out 35k ETH on 17th of May this year, marked on the chart 👇 pic.twitter.com/sTbUwHSzD4
— Edward Morra (@edwardmorra_btc) November 11, 2021
As you can see on the chart, on May 17th the price of ETH was near its previous peak. And after the Ethereum Foundation sold, ETH trended down for months and months. Is this a coincidence? Does the foundation employ great traders? Or, is there something else to this story? Did they dump on retail ETH holders? Did the Ethereum Foundation know anything that the rest of the world didn’t?
The Ethereum Foundation still holds 394,787 ETH, and Vitalik said he persuaded foundation to sell 70,000 ETH at the top of 2018 to support the work of developers. This is a normal operation, but it also means that the Foundation thought that bear market is coming.
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) May 21, 2021
At the time of the first sell-off, journalist Colin Wu highlighted the trade and said, “The Ethereum Foundation transferred 35,000 Eth to the Kraken Exchange on May 17. Vitalik said bubbles could have ended already on May 20.” Analyzing the move, Wu said, “This is a normal operation, but it also means that the Foundation thought that bear market is coming.”
The gas fee for this operation was 0.00240474 ETH, or $5.66 at the time of writing. Wow.
ETH price chart for 01/25/2022 on Bitfinex | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
What’s The Ethereum Foundation Anyway?
According toEthereum’s official site:
“The EF is not a company, or even a traditional non-profit. Their role is not to control or lead Ethereum, nor they are the only organization that funds critical development of Ethereum-related technologies. The EF is one part of a much larger ecosystem.”
The Ethereum Foundation distributes funds to developers via the Ecosystem Support Program and the Fellowship Program, organizes Devcom, and more. To do all that, they surely need Fiat currency in some capacity. The trade makes sense from that angle.
Related Reading | Ethereum Foundation Devs Discuss ETH2 Launch & Economics
The question, though, is, did they know that a crash was coming? And if they did, did they reach that conclusion through technical and on-chain analysis or by… other methods?
Featured Image by PatriestB on Pixabay | Charts by TradingView
Thanks to the proof of stake (PoS) consensus mechanism, a greener future is on the horizon for Ethereum, which will make the efficiency of the network two thousand times more.
“With proof-of-stake being aorund 2000 times more efficient than proof-of-work, the energy expenditure of Ethereum will be roughly equal to the cost of running a home computer for each node on the network.”
The Ethereum Foundation also acknowledged that the PoS framework would trigger a 99.95% reduction in total energy use.
The Ethereum network uses a proof-of-work (PoW) system where miners solve a computational puzzle to validate a block.
Nevertheless, for the PoS consensus mechanism, validation of blocks is dependent on the amount of ETH staked because it is used as collateral against dishonest behaviour. Furthermore, validators will be required to have 51% of the total ETH staked running in the network to maintain a fraudulent blockchain.
The Ethereum Foundation stated that a transition to the proof of stake from the present proof of work is expected to happen in the second quarter of 2022. However, the Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract launched in December 2020 shows the viability of the PoS consensus mechanism.
Meanwhile, the proof of stake framework has gained steam in 2021 based on some of the advantages it presents, like cost-effectiveness and environmentally friendliness.
As a result, PoS networks like Solana, Polkadot, and Cardano are opening opportunities for staking-as-a-service (STaaS) providers.
With staking involving locking up crypto assets for a certain period of time to earn interest or rewards, this market is experiencing significant growth. For instance, Solana recently emerged as the most staked crypto with a value of $78.49 billion.
The Ethereum Foundation (EF) and Ethereum Name Service (ENS) are backing a proposed system for secure sign-in using Ethereum from decentralized identity software firm Spruce.
Spruce’s system was selected after EF and ENS submitted a Request for Proposals in July encouraging developers and software firms to propose a sign-in package using Oauth — an open standard for access delegation.
A Sept. 13 announcement states that the firm aims to give users control of their own online identities, offering an alternative to handing over one’s personal data to the likes of Google, Apple, and Facebook.
Spruce notes that the Ethereum ecosystem “already has tens of millions of monthly active wallet users signing with their cryptographic keys for financial transactions, community governance, and more,” adding:
“The security of these wallets has been proven across billions of dollars of digital assets at stake — not theoretical security, but real tests in production. These secure wallets can also be used to sign in to Web2 services.”
Spruce will work closely with ENS and the Ethereum Foundation to ensure that its solution is compatible with existing standards used throughout the Ethereum ecosystem, emphasizing that “the final result will be friendly to implementers while remaining vendor-neutral.”
“By standardizing this workflow, millions of Ethereum users will be able to use a digital identity that they fully control to seamlessly access the web,” the team asserted.
Spruce added that it has already started to deliver a best-practices survey, user research, specification drafts, and reference implementation.
Related:Decentralized identity is the way to fighting data and privacy theft
In July, Cointelegraph reported that crypto payments and identity management platform Numio had developed an app that allows users to verify their identity to web services without sending any sensitive information. Numio’s system uses zero-knowledge proofs to cryptographically verify the data.
A group of DeFi projects and U.S. crypto exchange Kraken have donated $250,000 each to the Ethereum Foundation to support client teams working on the Ethereum (ETH) 2.0 upgrade.
On Aug. 24 the Ethereum Foundation announced that the donations were made by Kraken, Compound Grants, Lido, Synthetix, The Graph and Uniswap Grants. The funds will supplement the funding provided by the foundation earlier this year, to support Ethereum execution layer teams.
“Ethereum’s diverse client ecosystem is at the foundation of all that we’re building together. This includes both execution-layer and consensus-layer clients, both of which are essential parts of Ethereum’s post-merge future,” the announcement read.
The donations totaling $1.5 million will go to open-source developer teams including Besu, Erigon, Geth, Nimbus and Nethermind, who will provide “critical infrastructure for the network” post-merge of ETH 1.0 and ETH 2.0 — which will see ETH’s transition from proof of work to a proof of stake mechanism.
1/ A diverse execution-layer client ecosystem is at the heart of all that we’re building together.
Today, we’re excited to announce that @compoundgrants, @krakenfx, @LidoFinance, @synthetix_io, @graphprotocol & @Uniswap are donating $250K each to support #Ethereum client teams.
— Ethereum (@ethereum) August 24, 2021
Kraken CEO and co-founder Jesse Powell stated that the firm was proud to be “giving back to the courageous builders who are hard at work on the front lines of crypto innovation.”
According to Kraken, by July the exchange’s users had already staked 800,000 ETH in Eth2, worth $2.5 billion at current prices. At the time the platform stated it had distributed 25,300 ETH in rewards generated from client staking.
Related: Eth2 staking contract ranks as single-largest Ether hodler with $21.5B
“This project represents an effort to secure Ethereum’s long-term growth, health and decentralization. Each of these elements can be exemplified by client diversity, strength of the teams themselves, and our confidence that Ethereum will continue to succeed as they succeed,” the announcement read.
Earlier this month the Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 1559 upgrade went live, which introduced a burning mechanism as part of its adjusted gas fee structure. At the time of writing, Etherscan data shows that there is currently 4.85 ETH worth roughly $15,300 being burned per minute.
Five of the biggest names in DeFi and the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken have donated a total of $1.5 million to support Ethereum developers.
DeFi Gives Back to Ethereum
Ethereum execution-layer client teams will receive donations from some of the biggest names in DeFi.
An announcement published on the Ethereum Foundation blog Tuesday noted that DeFi blue chips Compound, Synthetix, and Uniswap had each contributed $250,000. Additionally, the liquid staking solution Lido Finance, Web3 indexing protocol The Graph, and centralized exchange Kraken all donated an equal amount, making a total of $1.5 million in contributions.
1/ A diverse execution-layer client ecosystem is at the heart of all that we’re building together.
Today, we’re excited to announce that @compoundgrants, @krakenfx, @LidoFinance, @synthetix_io, @graphprotocol & @Uniswap are donating $250K each to support #Ethereum client teams.
— Ethereum (@ethereum) August 24, 2021
The Ethereum Foundation has selected five client teams to receive the donations: Besu, Erigon, Geth, Nevermind, and Nimbus. The foundation assured the community that the additional grants awarded to these teams would not affect its own continued financial support.
Commenting on the donations, Ethereum Foundation Executive Director Aya Miyaguchi said:
“We strongly believe that collaborative efforts and support are the most sustainable way to benefit Ethereum in the long-term. This joint effort to support teams and builders that maintain a diverse set of Ethereum clients is not only impactful, but sets a great example.”
Many DeFi projects built on Ethereum have exploded over the last year, thanks in part to the rigorous and active development on the network. Protocols such as Synthetix and Compound, which found their footing on Ethereum, have respectively registered $31.7 million and $28 million in revenue since launching. As such, many DeFi protocols are looking to invest in the people behind the Ethereum infrastructure that has allowed them to succeed.
Execution layer developers played an integral role in the development of Ethereum when the network implemented its London hardfork earlier this month. Since January, the Ethereum Foundation has spent more than $10 million on execution-layer client research and development. Today’s announcement marks continued support for the development teams, which have made everything the network has achieved so far possible.
Disclaimer: At the time of writing this feature, the author owned BTC and ETH.
This news was brought to you by ANKR, our preferred DeFi Partner.
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The hotly anticipated “London” Ethereum hardfork now has a set block height for three Ethereum testnets — a key penultimate step towards a full mainnet launch.
In a blog post on the Ethereum Foundation’s website, Ethereum core developer Tim Beiko wrote that the Ropsten, Goerli, and Rinkeby testnets now have set block heights at which London will go live, with Ropsten expected to be the first at block 10499401, or sometime on June 24th. Goerli is expected to be next on June 30th, and Rinkeby on July 7th.
A release schedule for the all-important mainnet upgrade is still being determined, however.
“As of now, only the testnets (Ropsten, Goerli, Rinkeby) have been scheduled for London. Once the upgrade has successfully been activated on these networks, a block will be set for the Ethereum mainnet and be communicated on this blog and in other venues,” Beiko wrote.
The London hard fork upgrade includes five Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) upgrades, but the star of the show is EIP-1559. An overhaul of Ethereum’s existing fee structure, EIP-1559 is expected to reduce gas costs for users significantly. It may also cut into miner revenues by upwards of 50%, however, which has led to some grublings about a “miner revolt” which has largely failed to materialize.
RELATED: Ethereum’s $1.5B options expiry on June 25 will be a make-or-break moment
The upgrade is considered to be one of many bullish catalysts on the horizon for Ethereum, not least of which is the ETH 2.0 upgrade. ETH 2.0 will transition the network to a more scalable proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, which will significantly decrease the energy consumption of validation blocks.
The blog post noted that such significant system upgrades to a decentralized system is a feat of coordination.
“The decentralized nature of blockchain systems makes a network upgrade more difficult. Network upgrades in a blockchain require cooperation and communication with the community, as well as with the developers of the various Ethereum clients in order for the transition to go smoothly.”
On Thursday, the world’s second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, Ethereum surged in an indomitable bull rally. At press time, the coin was trading at a new all-time high of $2,760, a 2.89% gain in the last 24 hours. ETH currently has a market cap of $320 billion.
Asset Manager WisdomTree Lists Ethereum ETP
The price surge comes after one of the world’s biggest asset managers WisdomTree listed its new Ethereum ETP on Deutsche Borse’s Xetra market in Frankfurt and the Swiss Stock Exchange in Zurich.
The WisdomTree Ethereum ETP (ETHW) is currently the cheapest available Ethereum-derivative product in Europe with an expense ratio of just 0.95%. The ETHW will allow investors to gain exposure to Ether without actually holding the cryptocurrency. Besides, WisdomTree will be working along with multiple custodian solution providers to hold the digital asset. Speaking of this new development, Jason Guthrie, head of capital markets and digital assets at WisdomTree, said:
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“With this increase in popularity, institutional investors are doing their due diligence on the most liquid cryptocurrencies and we expect the pace of adoption across these to ramp up as the opportunity in digital assets becomes more compelling.”
Alexis Marinof, the European operations manager at WisdomTree, said that institutional demand for Ethereum has recently increased. In addition, its previous digital assets ETP products were well-received by institutional investors. He went on to say that the cryptocurrency asset class has helped institutions diversify their portfolios.
“By adding ETHW to our range, we now have the products and research capabilities to support institutional investors whether they are considering making their first allocations to digital assets or looking to diversify their exposures,” added Marinof.
Since the beginning of 2021, Ethereum has been on a big upswing. ETH has also gained nearly 300 percent year-to-date at its current price. CI Global Asset Management introduced the world’s first Ethereum mutual fund to the market earlier this week.
Related article | Ethereum Seems Unstoppable, Here’s How ETH Could Extend Rally
ETH 2.0 Deposit Contract Hit New ATH
Ethereum 2.0 was billed as the most ambitious update to the Ethereum network to date, and the hype appears to be bearing fruit. According to a Tweet from Glassnode alerts, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency has upgraded to a new all-time high of $10,935,392,247.93 for its deposit contracts.
📈 #Ethereum $ETH Total Value in the ETH 2.0 Deposit Contract just reached an ATH of $10,935,392,247.93
— glassnode alerts (@glassnodealerts) April 28, 2021
The community has embraced the cryptocurrency, particularly since the launch of the Ethereum 2.0 update in November 2020.
The foundation’s success began right at the start, with the preparations for its launch. The team behind it had planned to launch it on December 1, 2020, if the deposit contract reached a stake of 524,288 Ethereum coins. It met its target in a matter of hours, collecting over 150,000 ETH deposits in less than 24 hours.
Ethereum has been plagued by high gas fees, and Ethereum 2.0 is being heralded as the solution. Danny Ryan, the Ethereum 2.0 coordinator, said before the launch that the update added a lot of intrinsic value to the system.
Source: ETHUSD on TradingView.com
Related article | Ethereum Gains Momentum, Here’s Here Chances of a Run To $3K
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