Ethereum Deposit Contract
The Ethereum Deposit Contract is a smart contract deployed on the Ethereum Execution Layer (formerly Ethereum 1.0) that enables users to create validator nodes on the Ethereum network. Validator nodes contribute to network consensus and block creation. To become a validator, users must deposit 32 ether (ETH) into the contract. The deposit contract for Ethereum Consensus Layer (previously Ethereum 2.0) went live on November 4th, 2020, and users were required to stake their 32 ETH before the November 24th staking deadline. At least 16,384 individual users were needed to fulfill the 32 ETH staking requirement for the launch.