Ethereum surpasses Bitcoin in number of network nodes

The large number of validators waiting for Eth2 certification has increased Ethereum’s node count to 11,259, surpassing Bitcoin by more than 100 nodes.

For the second time this year, the Ethereum 2.0 genesis team has pushed the total number of Ethereum nodes above the number of Bitcoin nodes.

According to Ethernodes.org, there are currently 11,259 active Ethereum nodes, about 1% ahead of Bitcoin’s 11,136 nodes. Ethereum’s node count last surpassed Bitcoin’s in early September.

The number of Ethereum nodes has increased by more than 50% over the past two weeks or so, surging from a peak of 8,086 on November 15, 11 days after the Eth2 deposit contract went live. On November 30, Ethereum’s node count surpassed Bitcoin’s.

Ethereum historical node count: Ethernodes.org

According to Blockchain Center ’s “Flippening” index, which tracks the strength of the Ethereum network relative to Bitcoin, the surge in node count pushed the index up from 50.5% to 62.4% during November.

Flippening Index

According to the index, the number of nodes is the third major on-chain metric that currently supports Ethereum overtaking Bitcoin, with the number of transactions and transaction fees ranking in the top two.

Etherscan estimates that Ethereum processed nearly 1.2 million transactions in the past 24 hours, compared to Bitcoin’s 300,000. Ethereum also processed $3.6 million worth of transaction fees in the past 24 hours, compared to Bitcoin’s nearly $1.4 million worth of fees.

The Flippening Index estimates that Ethereum’s on-chain strength relative to Bitcoin hit a two-year high of 67.68% in early September, thanks to the DeFi boom in the third quarter.

Eth2’s beacon chain is set to start in a few hours. The launch of the Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract, which allows Ethereum holders to send their ether as collateral, has already reached the 524,288 ETH required to start the beacon chain a few hours before the November 24 deadline.

According to Beaconcha.in, 878,808 ether has now been sent to the 2.0 deposit contract. The genesis of the beacon chain will lay the foundation for sharding and proof of stake.