Ethereum Is 55% Complete Post-merge, Far From Buterin’s Plan: Reports

• CoinGecko reminded the community that the ETH network was only 55% complete.
• After the Shanghai upgrade, validators will be able to withdraw for the first time.
• Recent data suggests ETH validators have stacked over $22 billion.

In the past few years, the Ethereum blockchain has undergone many refinement phases geared toward making the network more efficient. While crypto enthusiasts eagerly await the next upgrade, the market tracker, CoinGecko, reminded the crypto community about what the founder of the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain said at the fifth edition of the Ether community conference in Paris last year.

Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, said that the Ethereum blockchain would be only 55% complete by the end of the Merge — the transition to the proof-of-stake (PoS) protocol that happened in September 2022. He said so, referencing the prevalent argument by the community that Bitcoin was 80% complete.

According to official sources, Ethereum’s next update, nicknamed Shanghai upgrade, is expected to happen next month. The highlight of the upcoming update is that staked funds will be withdrawable for the first time.

A blockchain researcher with the username WestieCapital on Twitter hinted that Ethereum’s withdrawal duration would be dynamic. Moreover, it will be depending on the number of validators leaving the network, in contrast to other proof-of-stake (PoS) networks, where the period is fixed at 21 days.

WestieCapital added that exiting validators may have to wait for either 27 hours or 36 days for the withdrawal stage to complete. According to the researcher, the wide gap between the two waiting periods was to disincentive bad actors.

In related news, it was previously reported that the Ethereum staking contract address recently crossed 16 million units of ETH tokens. The 16 million staked tokens, equivalent to over $22 billion, represented more than 13% of the coin’s market cap.