The Ethereum Foundation has announced a multi-million-dollar grant funding initiative aimed at furthering the development of Serenity (ETH2.0) development.
The funding comes as Ethereum nears the release of its highly anticipated ETH2.0 launch, which will bring Proof-of-Stake to the blockchain, in addition to other features that are expected to help fix some of the scaling issues that Ethereum has faced in the past.
Ethereum Foundation, Protocol Labs, and ConsenSys Lead Grant Funding Round
The latest round of funding is aimed at Ethereum client development teams that are currently taked with “delivering long-standing multi-client testnets as development approaches the launch of Phase 0.”
The Ethereum Foundation discussed the grants and listed the recipients of those grants in a blog post, where they explained that the latest round of USD funding comes as they “move close to the launch of the Beacon Chain.”
Beacon Chain is the first component of the Ethereum 2.0 development plan and will introduce Proof-of-Stake to the blockchain.
In a recent blog post, ConsenSys notes that Beacon Chain will be the “spine that supports” the upcoming Ethereum 2.0 system.
“The Beacon Chain is a brand-new, Proof-of-Stake blockchain. It is the spine that supports the whole of the new Ethereum 2.0 system. It is the heartbeat that keeps the system alive. It is the conductor coordinating all the players,” they explained.
A few notable recipients of the grants include Prysmatic Labs, who received $725k for Prysm client development, Status, who received a total of $500k for Nimbus client development, and Sigma Prime, who received $485k for Lighthouse client development.
This round of funding signals that the Ethereum Foundation is hard at work directing resources towards the imminent launch of ETH 2.0, and the launch of Beacon Chain will be the first step to implementing the highly anticipated changes that are widely expected to fix the scaling issues that currently plague the Ethereum blockchain.