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Phase 0 of Ethereum 2.0 has been running full nodes on the Topaz testnet for months. However, the first block on the highly anticipated Beacon Chain has been mined and validated in mid-April. The first testnet was called Sapphire, and it was a scaled-down version that successfully tested smaller 3.2 ETH deposits.
Topaz went live with testing full 32 ETH nodes in May, and the Onyx testnet was launched in mid-June. According to Prysmatic Labs, who have been conducting a lot of the testing, Onyx was running stable with over 20,000 validators by late June.
The next stage in the process was the launch of the Altona coordinated, multi-client testnet for Phase 0 in early July. The goal of Altona is to ensure some degree of stability before there is an official announcement of a large scale, ‘official’ multi-client testnet for ETH 2.0, according to the latest update.
ETH 2.0 Final Testnet ‘So Close’
The final testnet could be nearing according to some leaked commentary between Ethereum developers on their Discord channel.
“Technically, I don’t think there is anything missing for a public testnet launch. It’s just a couple of operational things that needs to be done I believe. I expect that we can start working on that next week.”
Commented one developer, while the reply said there were a few stability issues, but a date announcement was expected early next week. Ethhub co-founder Anthony Sassano tweeted the comments;
The final planned eth2 phase 0 testnet is going live very soon 👀
h/t @AlexanderFisher pic.twitter.com/KQ7VjUA6hz
— Anthony Sassano | sassal.eth 👨🌾 (@sassal0x) July 17, 2020
Prysmatic Labs updated the situation in their latest blog post today titled ‘So Close to Official Multi-client Testnet!’, which revealed that there had been some technical hiccups with block propagation and the ‘blockchain package,’ which handles the Beacon block, has been improved. Developer Afri Schoedon, who coordinates the ETH 2.0 multi-client testnet, posted some client metrics;
Ethereum 2.0 Client Metrics 07/2020 are out! pic.twitter.com/LUORWmbphe
— Afr Schoe (@q9fmz) July 17, 2020
The developers added that there was still work to be done, but it does seem that the final testnet could be launched very soon.
“Our aim is to make sure that Prysm beacon node is more robust, and is capable of performing its duties in presence of slow, broken, or even malicious peers.”
Ethereum Price Update
Unfortunately for Ethereum holders, none of this has had any impact on prices. In fact, nothing this year has really given ETH any price drive, including the monumental DeFi boom.
At the time of writing, ETH was hovering just above the $230 price zone, down 3.5% from the same time last week. Overall, Ethereum has been pretty flat all year and has yet to return to its 2020 highs back in February.
Holders appear to be waiting for ETH 2.0 to launch as recent reports indicate that almost 80% of the entire supply is being held in wallets that contain more than the minimum 32 ETH required to become a validator.
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