On 1 December 2020, at 12:00:23 UTC, Ethereum’s Beacon Chain produced its genesis slot. The deposit contract had already cleared the minimum 16,384 validators (32 ETH each); about 21,000 were active at genesis. Epoch 0 is a consensus network running in parallel with the proof-of-work execution chain people still use for wallets and apps. There is no new ticker. Nothing in your wallet needed a migration. If a site asked you to send ether to “claim ETH2”, it was a phishing kit with a roadmap.
The Merge (September 2022) is when execution stops using miners. Shapella (April 2023) is when withdrawals exist. London’s fee burn (August 2021) is a different fork. Do not hang those later stamps on 1 December.
What happened
Stakers locked 32 ETH into a deposit contract on the chain they already knew. In return they validate the Beacon Chain and earn rewards they cannot yet take home. Client diversity, slashing, and the fact that the money does not come back on demand are the product. “Eth2” as a brand will confuse people into thinking they must upgrade coins. They must not.
Why it matters
A chain that can take a deposit but not return it is a different product from a savings account. Enabling this path is how Ethereum intends to stop paying a global hash bill — later. Today is a start gun, not a finish. See ethereum without the jargon. See how crypto wallets actually work if a staking dashboard still looks like a bank app.
What happens next
More deposits, Altair and Bellatrix in later years, then a Merge that still is not this page. We will not forecast ETH. Nothing here is an instruction to stake, unstake, buy, or sell ether.
