tl;dr
This week, the EF revealed the Eth2 Staking Community Grants round to enhance the staking experience.
This is a public invitation for proposals for grants that seek to improve various aspects of staking — tools, documentation, educational materials, etc.
Take a look for further information including a non-exhaustive wishlist.
Submissions are due by December 22nd!
v1.0 eth2 testnets — Toledo and Pyrmont
This week, client developers led by protolambda initiated the Toledo devnet — a 16k validator testnet configured for v1.0 mainnet. While you can synchronize your preferred node with this testnet, you cannot make any validator deposits due to a modified, permissioned deposit contract. Toledo is designed for preliminary v1.0 testing and ongoing developer experimentation.
Next week, we plan to launch Pyrmont — a 100k validator testnet closely replicating mainnet conditions. After Pyrmont is launched and stabilized, the testnet will be accessible to the community. Pyrmont can act as a final venue to test mainnet software releases and hardware configurations in preparation for the mainnet launch.
Since Pyrmont utilizes mainnet configuration, it is subject to identical (slow) activation queue mechanics you may encounter on mainnet. Please act responsibly and limit yourself to one or two validator deposits. This will help maintain reasonable queue times in the upcoming weeks and create a productive testing environment for all users.
Pyrmont will be supported at least until the eth2 mainnet genesis. After that, we will explore options for establishing a long-term testnet with improved stability and UX characteristics. This may involve quicker queue processing and a considerably higher minimum ejection balance.
But until then, enjoy Pyrmont!
Mainnet deposits
In case you missed it last week, the eth2 mainnet deposit contract is operational along with the mainnet Launch Pad. The mainnet deposit contract is located at the following address — 0x00000000219ab540356cBB839Cbe05303d7705Fa. Please triple-check this address before transferring any funds.
A quick reminder — although the MIN_GENESIS_TIME is December 1st, 12pm UTC, there is a 7-day GENESIS_DELAY. This indicates that to guarantee your deposits are included in the genesis block, you must get them on-chain before November 24, 12pm UTC.
For a more thorough discussion on how genesis is initiated, refer to Ben Edgington’s genesis writeup.
Happy staking 🚀