Ethereum 2.0: Here’s An Easy Way To Burn Your 32 ETH. Don’t Do It

On Wednesday, the Ethereum Foundation announced the release of the deposit contract address for the long-awaited Ethereum 2.0. The network is expected to go live on December 1, and those who are interested in becoming validators must deposit 32 ETH (worth $12,900) to the contract address.

The network will need a total of 16,384 validators to begin its genesis on the said date with the total value of locked ETH expected to be 524,288 ETH (worth $211.2 million).

Interestingly, data from Dappradar at the time of writing shows that roughly $6.5 million or the equivalent of (16, 244 ETH) has been deposited in under 24 hours.

But there’s a ridiculous way anyone can easily lose their 32 ETH forever while trying to deposit it on the ETH 2.0 contract address.

Do Not Deposit Directly to ETH 2 Contract Address

Alongside the release of the Ethereum 2.0 contract address, the Ethereum Foundation released V 1.0 of ETH 2 launchpad. This portal is the only approved way for interested validators to deposit their ETH to the contract address.

Funds sent directly to the contract address or from ETH wallets on exchanges cannot be recovered and thus are lost forever.

https://t.co/Ema04pggSJ pic.twitter.com/UtUoLMnbW8

— Jeff Coleman | Jeff.eth (@technocrypto) November 4, 2020

The above warning is pertinent, given consistent reports about crypto users sending tokens to smart contract addresses on the Ethereum network. The design of smart contracts means that these funds are typically irrecoverable.

For instance, Coinfomania recently reported that users had sent $329,000 worth of DeFi token, YFI to the project’s smart contract address. A costly error of 1 million USDt was only mitigated by the intervention of Tether, the company that issues the stablecoin.

With these in mind, users interested in becoming validators in Ethereum 2.0 must follow the due process or prepare to part with some fairly hard-earned 32 ETH.