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ConsenSys developer Ben Edgington has released an update that predicts the genesis of the ETH 2.0 beacon chain will occur within the next six to eight weeks.
In a post announcing the launch of “V1.0.0 release candidate 0”, Edgington revealed that the Protocol Depository Agreement address functionality is expected to be announced this week. The deposit agreement allows ETH to be sent between Ethereum and ETH 2.0, and is one of the few remaining updates needed to facilitate the roll-out of ETH 2.0 phase 0:
“As I understand it, we are fine: deposit agreement in the next few days; genesis of the lighthouse chain 6-8 weeks later “.
However, the developer of the PegaSys engineering group stressed his prediction “is not an official statement”.
To complete the launch of phase 0, 500,000 Ether will need to be blocked for staking after the beacon chain is activated, followed by a one week genesis delay to give the network time to prepare.
According to Edgington, the new version also strengthens Ethereum against denial-of-service attacks, implements genesis delay and a temporary quadruple penalty.
The penalties were increased in response to the “dress rehearsal” of the “slightly erratic” genesis on the Spadina test network in late September, and what is now “very low participation” in the Medalla testnet.
The developer described the rate hike as “a temporary measure to give stakers more confidence in case we run into problems.” Despite low participation in the testnet, Edgington firmly believes the network is ready to transition to phase 0:
“I think people are getting a little bored of testnests. Time to move on […] we need to start Phase 0 asap. “
Edgington’s post comes after a successful trial on the Zinken testnet last week, which Anthony Sassano of Set Protocol described as the “penultimate testnet of the dress rehearsal before finally setting a launch date for the ETH 2 phase 0 mainnet”.
