# FAQ

## What is staking?

In order to participate as a validator, you need to have at least 32 ETH deposited on your validator account. The act of locking up 32 ETH and validating to receive rewards is called staking.

## What are the risks of staking?

The Beacon Chain will slash validators that act maliciously. The network will also penalize validators who are offline for a sustained amount of time.

Additionally, ETH locked in staking cannot be withdrawn until at least Phase 2.

## What are the risks of staking on Ethereum 2.0?

The main risks of staking on Ethereum 2.0 are penalties that result in a loss of funds, including slashing, and the possibility that the network will somehow fail to fully launch.

As a leading validator for 10+ Proof of Stake blockchains, we are confident in our ability to avoid slashing and other penalties. Read our slashing FAQ for more details.

While failure is a possibility for any project, we are strong supporters of Ethereum 2.0 and do not anticipate any major issues with its progress.

## When can I unstake and withdraw my eth2 funds?

Withdrawals are planned for the Shanghai upgrade, the next major upgrade following The Merge. This means that newly issued ETH, though accumulating on the Beacon Chain, will remain locked and illiquid for at least 6-12 months following The Merge.

## When will my validator join the network and be activated?

Withdrawals are planned for the Shanghai upgrade, the next major upgrade following The Merge. This means that newly issued ETH, though accumulating on the Beacon Chain, will remain locked and illiquid for at least 6-12 months following The Merge.

## When will my validator join the network and be activated?

All Ethereum 2.0 deposits have two delays before going into the waiting queue:

* Eth1 data inclusion delay: The Beacon Chain follows Eth1 with some delay to make sure the Eth1 data is finalized.&#x20;
* Eth1 data voting delay: The Beacon Chain validators vote on the deposits to process every 4 hours.

You can check more details about your validator, including the estimated time to join the network, at <https://beaconcha.in/>

## Why exactly does this take at least 13.6 hours?

The Ethereum 2.0 chain only considers transactions which have been in the deposit contract for at least 2048 Ethereum1.0 blocks to ensure they never end up in a reorged block.&#x20;

In addition to the 2048 Ethereum 1.0 blocks, 64 Ethereum 2.0 Epochs must be awaited before the beacon-chainrecognises the deposit During these 64 Epochs, validators vote on newly received deposits.

However, missed block proposals or bad Ethereum 1.0 nodes, which provide the deposit loas to the Ethereum 2.0 networcan cause longer waiting times.&#x20;

Therefore, run your own node!&#x20;

**2048 blocks** = 2048 X 12 seconds = 24576 seconds = 409.6 minutes = **\~6.82 hours**

**64 Epochs** = 64 X 6.4 minutes = 4096 minutes = **\~6.82 hours**
