The much-awaited upgrade, Ethereum 2.0, has successfully launched with the activation of its first phase, known as Beacon Chain or Phase 0.

Launch of Phase 0

The Beacon Chain of the ETH 2.0 activated at 12:00 pm UTC after the required coins deposited into the staking contract. The new update will make arrangements for new improvements, such as the implementation of the new consensus proof-of-stake from the old proof-of-concept. With the proof-of-stake, the network’s scalability issues will be solved. “It’s a great testament to the Ethereum Community,” Vitalik Buterin said at the launch of Phase 0. According to core researcher Danny Ryan:

“We got all the metrics up and I’m very excited. I’m very confident in the launch but if something goes wrong I’m very confident in the engineer’s ability to fix it.”

According to Ethereum’s announcement, the introduction of Beacon Chain to the network will enhance the security of the Ethereum network. “It lays the foundation for a new home for ethereum that is scalable, more secure and more sustainable,” Ryan said.

In proof-of-work, the miners validate transactions by solving mathematical problems by using miners. But in the proof-of-stake mechanism, the people can validate transactions depending on the amount of Ethereum a person holds. Per the Ethereum’s set value, a person will have to stake a minimum of 32 coins for validation of transactions.

The more people participate in the staking of Ethereum coins, the more the network will become safe and secure. For the launch of Beacon Chain, there was a need of 880,000, but the people deposited 355,000 more coins, which show traders and investors want proof-of-stake consensus for Ethereum.

According to the plan, the newly launched Beacon Chain will work as a separate entity, but in the future at a suitable time, it will merge with the mainnet.

In anticipation of the new upgrade, investors seem bullish and put a lot of capital in the second-largest coin by market capitalization. In the daily trading session, the price value became successful in breaking above $600, but it did not survive there for a long time. It went below $600 after the top digital asset lost $1,000 in a sudden move as a result of bearish pressure over the cryptocurrency exchanges.

At press time, the Ethereum coin is exchanging hands at $584 after a slight loss of 0.90% over the last 24-hours. After a bearish move, it is 1.83% down over the period of the last seven days.