Ethereum 2.0 First Anniversary: Key Information Worth Noting

At 8 PM Hong Kong time on December 1, 2020, Ethereum 2.0 launched its genesis block, officially bringing Phase 0 (Beacon Chain) online. According to established rules, before the Beacon Chain launch, the Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract required a minimum deposit of 524,288 ETH, representing at least 16,384 validators. To support this milestone in Ethereum's development, founder Vitalik Buterin deposited 3,200 ETH in advance.

One year later, as Ethereum 2.0's first anniversary arrives, let's review the achievements of Ethereum 2.0 over the past year and examine information worth our attention.

According to OKLink statistics, as of 9 AM Hong Kong time on November 22, 2021, total Ethereum 2.0 staking reached 8.343 million ETH. Compared to the initial 520,000 ETH at Beacon Chain launch, total staking increased by 7.819 million ETH over the past year, representing growth exceeding 1,492.1%.

Ethereum 2.0 total staking changes, data source: OKLink

Correspondingly, Ethereum 2.0 total deposit addresses and total validators reached 260,730 and 260,181 respectively, clearly demonstrating market investors' enthusiasm for Ethereum 2.0.

The resulting Ethereum 2.0 staking rate has risen accordingly. According to OKLink data, as of 9 AM Hong Kong time on November 22, 2021, the Ethereum 2.0 staking rate reached 7.1%. This means ETH locked in the Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract accounts for 7.1% of total ETH circulation. Particularly after EIP-1559 went live, the slowdown in Ethereum issuance due to base fee burning has further increased the Ethereum 2.0 staking rate.

Ethereum 2.0 staking rate changes, data source: OKLink

Next, let's compare ETH price changes over this year. On December 1, 2020, according to OKX platform quotes, ETH closed at $618.88. Over the following year, ETH price reached a high of $4,871.42 (as of November 22, 2021), representing gains exceeding 687.1%.

ETH price trend over the past year, data source: OKX

In previous OKX Learn articles introducing Ethereum, we've repeatedly mentioned Ethereum's macro development roadmap. According to the Ethereum core development team's plan, the Ethereum network must go through four development stages—Frontier, Homestead, Metropolis, and Serenity. Although the digital asset investment community has reached tens of millions or even hundreds of millions in scale, the proportion of investors who truly understand Bitcoin's design principles or Ethereum's technical roadmap is much smaller. On one hand, the theoretically ultra-high returns in digital asset investment have diluted most investors' enthusiasm for deep understanding. On the other hand, blockchain—the supporting technology for digital assets—cannot yet appear in the public eye as a professional, systematic academic discipline. Moreover, whether in the technical field or application layer, blockchain and digital asset evolution proceeds at an extremely fast pace, invisibly creating barriers for ordinary investors to gain deep understanding. When we look back at blockchain technology's development history, we find that although cryptography, distributed storage, consensus mechanisms, and other important underlying blockchain technologies have been studied in academia for decades, blockchain technology has only been viewed as an independent technology for just over a decade. Only after Satoshi Nakamoto's genius integration of these multiple technologies through Bitcoin did people believe a distributed database could indeed be built this way. As Bitcoin's follower and improver, Ethereum's development history is much shorter. Only in July 2015, after months of multiple stress tests, did the Ethereum mainnet finally go live, thus opening the "Frontier era." However, early Ethereum only supported developers mining ETH , developing Dapps, and some simple tools—at best a "usable" blockchain , still far from today's thriving ecosystem. So after "Frontier," the Ethereum developer team successively completed "Homestead" and "Metropolis" upgrades, continuously advancing Ethereum network performance and ecosystem building. "Metropolis" launched in two phases: Byzantium (October 2017) and Constantinople (January 2019), with the primary upgrade purpose of making Ethereum lighter, faster, and more secure.

With the completion of the Constantinople upgrade in February this year, Ethereum arrived at the doorstep of "Serenity" (i.e., ETH 2.0). After the Constantinople upgrade, the Ethereum network has since undergone Istanbul, Muir Glacier, Berlin, and London upgrades. The most highly anticipated and impactful was the London upgrade in early August this year, as it encompassed multiple heavyweight improvement proposals including EIP-1559 and EIP-3554. EIP-1559's core proposes reducing transaction fee volatility by burning ETH-paid fees rather than allocating them to miners. Since going live on August 5, it has cumulatively burned 974,000 ETH , accounting for 66.68% of Ethereum network issuance during the same period. On September 3, it officially welcomed the first deflationary day, with a net reduction of 352 ETH that day.

ETH burning since EIP-1559 launch, data source: watchtheburn

Additionally, at Hong Kong time on October 27, 2021, when the Ethereum Beacon Chain reached Epoch 74240, the Ethereum network welcomed a small-scale upgrade—the Altair hard fork. Altair is a relatively minor Beacon Chain update, with one important new feature being the "light client sync committee." Validators in this committee are periodically incentivized to provide block header information to light clients.

According to the latest news from the Ethereum core development team, when block height reaches 13,773,000 (approximately December 8), the Ethereum Arrow Glacier network upgrade will launch. This upgrade mainly includes the EIP-4345 proposal, postponing the difficulty bomb detonation plan from the originally scheduled December 2021 (see EIP-3554 content) to June 2022. Meanwhile, Ethereum core developer Tim Beiko stated that if The Merge is ready beforehand, it can proceed earlier, with another decision to be made via conference call in February next year. Additionally, the difficulty bomb is based on current network hashrate—if hashrate drops rapidly before the merge, it may accelerate the difficulty bomb's appearance.

So, judging from current progress, if no major accidents cause further delays, perhaps after just a series of hard fork upgrades like Shanghai and phased upgrades, we'll soon see a brand new Ethereum—the arrival of the PoS era after Ethereum 2.0's full implementation.

However, such an important historical moment obviously won't arrive quietly. During Ethereum 2.0's intensive advancement, recent community debates have emerged from time to time. Around 1 PM Hong Kong time on November 20, Synthetix founder Kain Warwick tweeted: "In this cycle, many people I respected early on have chased opportunistic gains at the expense of reputation to maximize profits. Remember this—once L2 scaling becomes inevitable, they'll all flood into the Ethereum ecosystem." Three Arrows Capital founder suzhu expressed a different view, stating: "Although I supported Ethereum in the past, I've given up on it. Although Ethereum supported users in the past, it has abandoned users. Newcomers can no longer afford this chain." "Ethereum culture is deeply affected by founder's dilemma. Everyone is already too wealthy to remember their original intentions. Perhaps a bear market is needed to remind them, or we must build new truly user-supporting blockchains elsewhere."

In this online debate, suzhu was heavily criticized for focusing on Ethereum's high gas fees and other current Ethereum network shortcomings while ignoring developers' efforts to advance ETH 2.0 and numerous Layer 2 development teams' achievements, ultimately having to temporarily conclude with suzhu's apology.

Predictably, such debates are neither the first nor the last. As Ethereum 2.0 progresses, more disputes between different interest groups will surface. But objectively speaking, the birth and development of any new thing in history inevitably accompanies various conflicts. Only after resolving conflict after conflict do we witness new things' repeated transformations. Ethereum is probably no exception.

Disclaimer

This article may contain content related to products not available in your region. This article is intended to provide general information only and is not responsible for any factual errors or omissions. This article represents only the author's personal views and does not represent OKX's views. This article is not intended to provide any advice, including but not limited to: (i) investment advice or investment recommendations; (ii) offers or solicitations to buy, sell, or hold digital assets; or (iii) financial, accounting, legal, or tax advice. Holding digital assets (including stablecoins) involves high risk and may fluctuate significantly or become worthless. You should carefully consider whether trading or holding digital assets is suitable for you based on your financial situation. Please consult your legal/tax/investment professionals regarding your specific circumstances. Information appearing in this article (including market data and statistics, if any) is for general reference only. While we have taken all reasonable care in preparing this data and charts, we assume no responsibility for any factual errors or omissions expressed herein. © 2025 OKX. This article may be reproduced or distributed in its entirety, or excerpts of 100 words or less from this article may be used, provided such use is non-commercial. Any reproduction or distribution of the entire article must also prominently state: "This article is © 2025 OKX and used with permission." Permitted excerpts must cite the article name and include attribution, such as "Article Name, [Author Name (if applicable)], © 2025 OKX." Some content may be generated or assisted by artificial intelligence (AI) tools. No derivative works or other uses of this article are permitted.

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