The largest Ethereum contract containing 8,641,954 Ether (ETH) worth $ 33.5 billion is idle because it cannot be spent or shipped.
A Twitter user highlighted the Beacon chain contract that claims to be Ethereum's largest contract with billions of dollars in ETH "trapped" inside.
BREAKAGE: 8,641,954 ETH ($ 32 billion) trapped in Ethereum's largest contract and cannot be shipped or spent. It will require a hard fork that has not yet been written or specified. The timing and terms of the hard fork are still unknown.https://t.co/xcXPwbS93v
- Tomer Strolight | I am not interested in your trades. (@TomerStrolight) December 14, 2021
The contract in question is an Ethereum 2.0 beacon chain share contract launched in November 2020, and cannot be spent without a fork.
What makes this even more surprising is the fact that the terms of the fork have yet to be decided and the people sending their ETH to the contract knew this very well. The terms of the hard fork could be decided once the Beacon chain merges with the Ethereum mainnet.
The Beacon chain is the key first step in Ethereum's move from a proof-of-work mining consensus to a proof-of-stake (PoS) one. To become a validator on Eth 2.0, a trader must stake a minimum of 32 ETH. Hence, the $ 33.5 billion in ETH in the largest Beacon chain contract shows high demand and confidence in the upcoming Eth 2.0.
In early December, Ethereum developers asked community members to test fusion with PoS-based ETH 2.0. The testing phase has been divided into three phases, namely for non-technical users, developers with limited blockchain experience, and highly technical and experienced blockchain developers.
The merger of the Beacon chain into the Ethereum mainnet would complete the transition to PoS Eth 2.0. The official Ethereum.org page for Eth 2 suggests that the merger could be completed in the first or second quarter of 2022.
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