By Tobi Loba
The eventual launch of the long-awaited Ethereum 2.0 draws closer with each passing day. What strengthens the certainty of the official upgrade of the Ethereum network in 2020 is the release of its deposit contract address about two days ago.
Since the release of the deposit contract address for Eth 2.0, thousands of funds to the tune of 31,557 ETH at the time of publication have been contributed.
Vitalik Buterin Contributes 3,200 ETH
According to EtherScan, the tracker of Ethereum blockchain data, Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum (ETH), has so far contributed the sum of 3,200 ETH to the newly launched deposit contract address.
Read Also: Vitalik Buterin Sold His ETH Holdings for Fiat, Not BTC; He Did Not Buy Bitcoin in 2017 or Later
As related by TheBlockCrypto, Buterin expects the deposit contract to keep winning people’s interest “as stakers get their coins out of cold storage, get comfortable with the tools and confident that the tools work and they’re not accidentally throwing their coins away, etc.”
While sharing his opinion on whether the deposit contract will attain the requisite 524,288 ETH from 16,384 validators on or before 1st December 2020, Buterin remained optimistic, but stated that “There are not a lot of precedents.”
Vitalik Buterin went further to say:
“If you look at the ether sale in 2015 for example, there was a significant (but disappointing) level of participation on day 1, then very little on days 2-12, and then on day 13 and especially 14 (the last day with a full discount) there was a huge spike that ended up being something like half of all ether that ended up going into the sale. So it’s very possible that here too we’ll see a quiet period and then lots of participation in the last week of November. But this is me just speculating, we’ll see!”
Read Also: Three Arrows Capital CEO Gives Reason Why He Thinks Ethereum (ETH) Is Unforkable Now
Ethereum (ETH) in the Market
The price of Ethereum (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, has so far reacted positively to the release of the deposit smart contract adress.
While some other cryptocurrencies experienced lethargic growth, ETH has joined Bitcoin (BTC) in its hostoric rally over the past hours. At press time, ETH is trading at $412.96, with a 3.07% price uptrend in the last 24 hours.