:Eth2 deposit contract released! How to pledge your ETH to become a validator?

11 min readNov 7, 2020

Author: Ryan Sean Adams

Translator: Jhonny

Editor: Mickey

Eth2 is coming soon.

According to an Ethernet Square Foundation official blog message (see below), today officially released version Eth2 specification v1.0, including the release of Phase 0 of the main network beacon chain deposit contract (Deposit Contract) address , Eth2 beacon chain block creation The birth time of is expected to be December 1, 2020.

The current Eth2 deposit contract has been deployed, and the official deposit contract address announced by the Ethereum Foundation is: 0x00000000219ab540356cbb839cbe05303d7705fa According to Eth2 Launch Pad ( launchpad.ethereum.org ), as of the time of writing, 19,685 ETH has been pledged into the deposit contract! When the ETH pledge amount in the deposit contract reaches 524,288 ETH (that is, 16,384 validators participate in the mortgage, and each validator pledges 32 ETH), the Eth2 beacon chain mainnet (Eth2 phase 0) will be held on December 1st Officially start, otherwise the birth time of the beacon chain genesis block will be postponed. [Note: Eth2 Launch Pad is a quick launch platform for Eth2 verification nodes]

It should be noted that if ETH holders want to become Eth2 verification nodes, they must have the necessary hardware requirements and technical expertise, and follow the step-by-step instructions through the official Eth2 Launch Pad. Do not directly send ETH to The deposit contract address , sending ETH directly to the contract address will cause the transaction to fail, but it does not mean participating in the pledge on Eth2. How to become an Eth2 network verifier? What should I pay attention to before staking ETH? …We will cover the following in this article:

Eth2 verifier hardware requirements;
Select and install Eth2 client’
Build Eth1 node;
Use Eth2 Launch Pad to complete the pledge.

Hardware requirements

Based on the design goal of Eth2 decentralization, it is expected that Eth2 verifiers will use a variety of different infrastructures (local deployment, cloud, etc.). ????If you have not participated in the ETH pledge operation of the Eth2 testnet before, you can use the Medalla testnet to experiment to determine which setting will give you the best participation performance. Before officially becoming an Eth2 beacon chain validator, make sure to perform some tests on the testnet! You can participate in becoming a validator of the Medalla testnet through this link:

https://medalla.launchpad.ethereum.org/ Below we will give some hardware requirements to become an Eth2 validator to help you prepare in advance!

Recommended hardware specifications:

Operating system : 64-bit Linux, Mac OS X, Windows
Processor : Intel Core i7–4770 or AMD FX-8310 (or better)
Memory : 8GB RAM
Storage space : 100GB solid state drive free space
Internet connection : Broadband Internet connection (10 Mbps)
Power supply : Uninterruptible power supply (UPS)

Or choose a cloud provider . Take the Digital Ocean cloud provider as an example:

The corresponding Digital Ocean virtual machine instance:
Memory : 8GB RAM
Storage space : 160GB solid state drive free space
Uptime : 99.99%
Availability : 8 data centers
$/hour : $0.060
$/month : $40

Minimum hardware specifications:

Operating system : 64-bit Linux, Mac OS X, Windows
Processor : Intel Core i5–760 or AMD FX-8110 (or better)
Memory : 4GB RAM
Storage space : 20GB solid state drive free space
Internet connection : Broadband Internet connection (10 Mbps)
Power supply : Uninterruptible power supply (UPS)

The corresponding Digital Ocean virtual machine instance:

Memory : 4GB RAM
Storage space : 80GB solid state drive free space
Uptime : 99.99%
Availability : 8 data centers
$/hour : $0.030
$/month : $20

Select and install Eth2 client

Eth2 has multiple clients to choose from, and the verifier can choose different client implementations when running the verifier node. Up to now, there are 4 Eth2 clients developed by the Eth2 client team to choose from . These Eth2 clients are distributed: Teku, Nimbus, Lighthouse and Prysm .

Eth2 client

Prysm is developed by the Prysmatic Labs team (Discord):

Prysm is an Eth2 client implementation based on Go, focusing on client availability, security and reliability. The Prysm client is written in Go language and released under the GPL-3.0 license.
Instructions for use:
https://docs.prylabs.network/docs/getting-started/
Github:
https://github.com/prysmaticlabs/prysm/

Lighthouse is developed by the Sigma Prime team (Discord):

Lighthouse is based on Rust’s Eth2 client implementation, with great emphasis on speed and security. Sigma Prime, the team behind the Lighthouse client, is an information security and software engineering company. Lighthouse is released under the Apache 2.0 license.
Instructions for use:
https://lighthouse-book.sigmaprime.io/
Github:
https://github.com/sigp/lighthouse

Teku by the ConsenSys Development (Discord):

PegaSys Teku is a Java-based Eth2 client implementation, which is designed and built to meet institutional needs and security requirements. Teku is licensed under Apache 2 and written in Java, which is a mature and widely used language.
Instructions for use:
https://docs.teku.pegasys.tech/en/latest/HowTo/Get-Started/Build-From-Source/
Github:
https://github.com/PegaSysEng/teku

Nimbus is developed by Status (Discord):

Nimbus is an Eth2 research project and a client implementation designed to run well on embedded systems and personal mobile devices (including older smartphones with resource-constrained hardware). Nimbus (Apache 2 license) is written in Nim language, Nim is a language with a syntax similar to Python that can be compiled into C language.
Instructions for use: https://nimbus.team/docs/
Github: https://github.com/status-im/nim-beacon-chain

Install Eth1 node

In addition to installing an Eth2 client, running an Eth2 validator node also needs to run an Eth1 node, which is used to monitor the validator’s 32 ETH mortgage deposit. When building an Eth1 node, there are many options. The following are the most commonly used tools to start an Eth1 node:

Self-hosted Eth1 node client:

OpenEthereum: https://www.parity.io/ethereum/
Geth: https://geth.ethereum.org/
Besu: https://besu.hyperledger.org/en/stable/
Nethermind: https://www.nethermind.io/

Eth1 node client hosted by a third party:

Infura: https://infura.io/

Run Eth2 validator node

Step 1: get ETH

If you are not familiar with Ethereum, then an important step is to first obtain the ETH needed to become an Eth2 validator. Each Eth2 validator node needs to pledge 32 ETH. Please note that if you succeed in becoming an Eth2 validator in the end, it means that you have made a long-term commitment to this participation plan (because these pledged ETH cannot be withdrawn in the short term). If you need to get some ETH, you can get it through a cryptocurrency exchange, such as:

Fiat Exchange (U.S.) : Coinbase or Gemini
Fiat exchanges (non-US regions) : Binance or Kraken
Ethereum decentralized exchange : Uniswap

Step 2: Go to the Eth2 Launchpad platform for ETH pledge

In the past few months, the Ethereum Foundation (EF), Codefi Activate, and Deep Work Studio have been developing an Eth2 validator node quick start interface to make it easier for users to participate in ETH staking and become an Eth2 validator. The result of this work is the release of the Eth2 Launch Pad platform, which aims to safely guide users to complete the generation of Eth2 key pairs and pledge 32 ETH into the official Eth2 deposit contract . The Eth2 Launch Pad is designed for people who can participate in the Eth2 validator node at home , that is, hobbyists who plan to run their own Eth2 validator node and accept commands to run on their computer terminal screen.

Step 2: due diligence

In the process of becoming an Eth2 validator node, it is very important to take a moment to read the content on the Eth2 Launch Pad platform! The “Overview” section on the platform is designed to let you know the risks and related information involved in staking ETH. Including: (1) Eth2 uses PoS (Proof of Rights Mechanism) to protect the entire network. To this end, the network needs active participants (that is, verifiers) to propose, verify, and guarantee the validity of the block. In exchange, honest verifiers will receive financial rewards. What is important is that validators need to pledge ETH as collateral, in other words, need to pledge some funds. The only way to become a validator is to send a one-way ETH transaction to the deposit contract on the current Ethereum chain (that is, the Eth1 chain). (2) To become an Eth2 validator, you need to pledge 32 ETH for each validator node you want to run. Note that this mortgage process is one-way irreversible. (3) Only validators who actively participate in the Eth2 consensus can be rewarded. Verifiers who are offline will be punished . The penalty for a node offline is equivalent to the reward that the node can obtain when actively participating in the consensus. (4) malicious behavior or verifier and Eth2 contrary to norms, are susceptible to confiscation of punishment (get slashed), which will lead to huge penalties. (5) The verifier key is derived from the unique mnemonic (seed). Your seed is the only way to withdraw money . Therefore, the most important thing is to ensure its safety! Please back up your mnemonic phrase ! (6) Eth2 Launch Pad will help users create a signature key pair for each verifier node(Different verifier nodes have different signature keys. Even if a user runs multiple verifier nodes at the same time, multiple verifier nodes run by the same user can use the same withdrawal key), these signature keys The key will be stored in the keystore (keystore file) (note: each verifier’s signature key will be stored in a separate keystore). Before you start the verification using the verifier software, you need to import the keystore to the verification In the software. When you create a validator node through Eth2 Launch Pad, you will also receive a deposit file (deposit file with the file extension .json), which needs to be uploaded to the Eth2 Launch Pad website. (We will explain this below) (7) Transfer between validators is not possible at least before Eth2 Phase 1 . The validator must wait until Phase 2 (about 2 years) to withdraw funds to a specific shard chain. (8) Since the verifier cannot transfer money at least until the arrival of Phase 1 , the verifier cannot voluntarily exit the ranks of the verifier and restart the node before this . This means that verifiers will need to participate in the Eth2 consensus for a long period of time. (9) The current users are participating in the initially released Eth2 new network. Like any new software, there are potential bugs . Although unlikely, potential bugs may cause nodes to be penalized by slashing. (10) In order to become a verifier, you will need to generate a new Eth2 key pair . For this, and also in order to install verifier software, you need to be technically capable of running command lines on a computer terminal .

Step 3: Generate key pair and mnemonic

For each verifier node, you need to generate a verifier key pair and a mnemonic phrase that will be used to generate your withdrawal key later. First, you need to fill in the number of validator nodes you want to run on the Eth2 Launch Pad and the operating system on which you want to run the validator nodes. See below????

Next, the Eth2 Launch Pad platform will provide you with two options for generating your deposit keys. You can find detailed instructions for your operating system through the link below: https://github.com/ethereum/eth2.0-deposit-cli/blob/master/README.md The first is to use the binary executable file that you can download from the Eth2 Github repo and then run the ./deposit command in your terminal window. The first option is to use the Eth2 Github repo ( https://github.com/ethereum/eth2.0-deposit-cli /releases/ ) Download the binary executable file, and then run the ./deposit command in your terminal window. See the picture below???? Please remember to verify the following URL to make sure you are using the correct URL to download!

The second option is to build a deposit-CLI tool from Python source code. You will need to follow the instructions to ensure that you have installed all the necessary development libraries and deposit-CLI tools. See below????

When you install the deposit-CLI tool and run it in your terminal window, you will be prompted:

Specify the number of validator nodes you want to run;
The language you want to use to generate mnemonics;
Specify the network (mainnet) you want to run the validator node on.

Please make sure you set — chain mainnet, otherwise the deposit will be invalid. Now, you will be asked to set your password (password), once the password is determined, your mnemonic will be generated. Please make sure you write down the mnemonic phrase and store it offline in a safe place! If you have successfully completed this step, you should be able to see the screen below????

If you have any questions about deposit-cli, please visit its GitHub repository: https://github.com/ethereum/eth2. 0-deposit-cli

Step 4: Upload your deposit file

You are almost done! The next step is to upload the .json deposit file you generated in the previous step. The file is located in the /eth2.0-deposit-cli/validator_keys directory, and the file is named deposit-data-[timestamp].json.

Step 5: Connect your wallet

The next step is to connect to your Web3 wallet and click Continue. Please make sure you select the mainnet environment in your wallet settings . Add the following picture????

Step 6: Confirm transaction information & initiate mortgage deposit

After you connect to the wallet and confirm your wallet address, you will enter a summary page that will display the total amount of ETH you need to send to the deposit contract (according to the number of validator nodes you have chosen to run before, each Verifier 32 ETH). Click on the alert checks, and then click OK to navigate to the last step-to make the actual deposit. Click “Initiate the Transaction” to pledge your ETH into the official Eth2 deposit contract. You will need to confirm the 32 ETH pledge of each validator through your wallet. When the transaction is confirmed, you have completed the Eth2 pledge operation! ???? Congratulations! !