Ahead Of Shanghai Upgrade, Ethereum Validator Becomes 500.000

Ethereum network validator is increasing. (Photo; Doc. Unsplash)

JAKARTA – The second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, Ethereum (ETH) has reportedly experienced an increase in the number of validators in the Beacon network. Currently, the number of ETH validators reached 500.000 on January 12, 2023. The increase occurred ahead of the implementation of the Shanghai upgrade.

Ethereum core developers are gearing up to roll out their latest upgrade, the Shanghai hard fork. This was announced by the development team on January 11. They stated that the increase would be carried out in March 2023.

Previously, core Ethereum developers briefly touched on the upgrade during the crypto project developers meeting, All Core Devs (ACD), which took place in early January 2023.

At the time, Ethereum's core developers emphasized that they were focused on anticipating withdrawals of staking ETH. It's been 123 days since The Merge, the point in time when the Ethereum blockchain made the transition from a proof-of-work (PoW) blockchain to a proof-of-stake (PoS) network.

That means instead of miners and ASIC devices verifying transactions, Ethereum validators are now handling the verification of onchain transactions on the main network.

Shortly after the announcement from the core developer, the Ethereum network managed to record a new milestone by increasing the number of validators to 500.000, according to statistics from beaconscan.com.

To become a validator, an individual or organization must physically manage validator clients on Beacon Chain and hold 32 ETH, according to a Bitcoin.com report.

Meanwhile, Beaconscan.com shows as of January 15, 2023, around 501.215 validators are registered on the Ethereum blockchain. On the same day last year, there were around 282.249 ETH validators. That means the number has increased by 77.58 percent over the last 12 months.

On the day of The Merge, there were 428.438 validators, and today the number is 16.99 percent higher than before. At the time of writing, the main ETH coin is trading at IDR 23.771.451 per coin. In the past two weeks, the price of ETH has surged by 25.8 percent.