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Ethereum has successfully launched another dress rehearsal testnet for the upcoming Ethereum 2.0 Phase 0, dubbed Zinken.
The launch took place on Monday at 12:00 UTC, and unlike previous attempts, it was a smooth launch with sufficient participation and no major bugs.
The testnet was organized after the bittersweet launch of Spadina, the first test that aimed to test the launchpad for stakers.
As Cointelegraph reported at the time, Spadina’s testnet suffered from low participation rates, which meant that many validators who had signed up for the testnet were unable to get their customers online. Although this was initially believed to be due to a lack of financial incentives, further analysis showed that bugs in customers were a significant part of the problems.
Maintaining a high participation rate is critical to network integrity, as over 66% of the stake must confirm blocks for the blockchain to be considered finalized, meaning blocks can no longer be canceled.
Zinken became the first testnet that passed the finalization threshold within minutes of its existence, proving to be the most successful testnet launch to date. Although it was still below the ideal of 90%, participation was above 75% since genesis.
Ethereum 2.0 developers were pleased with the launch, noting that “Discord chat is silent” – a welcome sign from previous bug and issue reporting streams, they said.
This was the confirmation that the developers had to carry on with the launch of the mainnet. Vitalik Buterin, who was also present during the call, added that the team could still do a few more tests, but they will likely be reserved for developers.
Danny Ryan, the Ethereum Foundation’s lead coordinator for Ethereum 2.0, was optimistic that a 2020 launch could be imminent:
“This is my impression [that a 2020 launch is on target]. This is an ongoing dialogue with customer teams and we need to take a second to review this testnet. But I understand this will trigger the next set of things. There are always blockers that may appear, [so] we must do it responsibly. “
He noted that readiness is difficult to assess and requires input from all participants, but good progress has been made on this recently.
Ethereum 2.0 Phase 0 will feature the launch of a chain of beacons, the first building block of the new blockchain. Life on Ethereum 1.0 will continue as before, as the two blockchains will have almost no interaction between them other than a one-way deposit agreement. Until the next steps arrive, stakers will not be able to withdraw or transfer the Ether (ETH) they have committed.
