Final Ethereum 2.0 Testnet Likely to Launch on August 4

The final testnet for Ethereum 2.0 will be released in under two weeks, said the project’s developers on June 21.

Final Testnet Coming August 2020

As Decrypt reported, the last testnet ahead of Ethereum 2.0 can be expected in the second week of August 2020; with the genesis block as soon as November this year.

Ethereum developer Danny Ryan broke the news on the project’s Discord channel yesterday, stating that “after discussions with client teams, the next multi-client testnet (mainnet config including min validator numbers) will have a min genesis time of August 4 (likely 1 or 2 pm UTC).”

Developers have previously said that the testnets should run for at least three months. All of Ethereum’s multiple clients – such as Prysmatic and Teku – will be supported. However, despite the launch date, “right conditions” need to be met before the project is fully rolled out.

Ryan added that “Launchpad”—the test educational deposit interface aimed at hobbyists—would be included in the testnet, and that further details would be made public in a couple of days.

The final phase follows June’s launch of the Altona testnet – which so far – has been working seamlessly in testing and has not reported issues. At the time, the developers said the testnet boasted over 20,000 validators.

Much-Awaited ETH 2.0 Launch

The launch announcement follows multiple developments on the Ethereum 2.0 release in the past month.

As BTCManager reported in June, Ethereum developer Danny Ryan said the multi-client testnet of v0.12 Altona was expected to launch before July. 

The testnet will be entirely controlled by the constituent client teams, such as Lighthouse, Nimbus, Prysm, and Teku, Afri (an Ethereum developer), and team members of the Ethereum Foundation.

He noted at the time that Altona was still more of a “devnet” than one built with the end-users in mind, despite the framework being eventually accessible to all.  Ryan added the next release will be a larger, community focused testnet “with the mainnet configuration of a minimum of 16,384 validators to start.”

Just yesterday, the Ethereum Foundation launched its Bug Bounty program for developers and teams to exploit the ETH 2.0 testnet. A prize of $5,000 per bounty (limited to one per team) has been announced, and hackers will have to try “try non-validator based attacks for this run.”