Beacon chain is online! Ethereum 2.0 is created! -

Summary: Ethereum 2.0 Phase 0’s mainnet beacon chain went live at 12 noon UTC on Tuesday.

Ethereum 2.0 Phase 0’s mainnet beacon chain went live at 12pm UTC on Tuesday.

This will be the first step in an important upgrade to Ethereum 2.0, in which the proof-of-stake mechanism will be introduced, which will solve Ethereum's long-standing scalability problems.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said on Twitter, “This is a great testament to the Ethereum community. Congratulations on the launch!”

Danny Ryan, a core researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, said, “We saw more than two-thirds of the participants participate in this activity, which is the key to the healthy development of this activity. I am confident that the launch will be successful, but if there are problems, I am also confident in the ability of engineers to fix them.”

However, he also admitted that the upgrade of Ethereum 2.0 is a long process. He mentioned, "We thought we would go online in December last year. The new beacon chain will lay the foundation for a scalable, more secure and more sustainable Ethereum."

In proof-of-stake Ethereum 2.0, if a node holds a certain amount of Ethereum, it can mine or verify transactions on the network. A validating node will need at least 32 Ethereum ($19,000) to verify a transaction.

According to Glassnode, nearly 900,000 ETH has been deposited so far, which is far more than the minimum amount required for Phase 0.