Major mining pool commits support to Ethereum 2.0 test network

By Alexander Behrens

OKEx is charging ahead on the road to Ethereum 2.0.

OKEx, the world’s fourth-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, announced on Wednesday that OKEx Pool has become one of the first large mining pools to support the Ethereum 2.0 Topaz test network. The exchange expects this to attract new users to its platform and help get the word out about the upcoming release of the next version of Ethereum.

OKEx Pool launched in summer 2019 with support for nine proof-of-work cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ethereum. The pool quickly rose to prominence, providing enough BTC hashing power to be one of the top five largest pools within the first three months of launch.

The OKEx Pool ETH mining hash rate is approximately 25 GH/sec among 150 active miners, making it the 46th largest ETH mining pool by hash power based on data from Miningpoolstats.stream. The total ETH hash rate is currently about 190 TH/sec, meaning OKEx Pool contributes about 0.01% of all hash power securing the current Ethereum mainnet.

As previously reported by Decrypt, the Ethereum 2.0 Topaz testnet will bridge the gap as Ethereum transitions from proof-of-work consensus to proof of stake. The testnet is being developed by Prysmatic Labs and has already garnered more than 20,000 validators who are required to stake 32 test ETH (known as GöETH) to become an active node. Following the eventual transition to the Ethereum 2.0 mainnet, it’s expected that OKEx Pool will offer ETH staking to pool members, similar to EOS and IOST staking programs currently available.

“We have already established the collaboration with Prysmatic Labs and more specific cooperation will be carried out by us to promote the development of ETH in the near future,” OKEx Chief Strategy Officer Alysa Xu said in the announcement.

“We are glad to have become one of the first mining pools to have successfully connected with the Topaz ETH 2.0 test network,” Xu said.

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