Leading developer of Ethereum 2.0 Justin Drake said that the launch of the zero-stage update can not wait until the beginning of next year. Vitalik Buterin does not agree with this.
Justin Drake expressed this point of view during a session of answering questions on the Reddit forum. It was previously reported that one of the key factors affecting the launch delay is the multi-client model, which is extremely important to maintain a high level of network security.
Drake explained that an open test network with support for more than three clients should demonstrate steady performance for two to three months. In addition, you need to conduct a mass test with a reward for finding bugs (bounties), which also lasts about three months.
“There are some things that I would like to see before the genesis. However, all this cannot be carried out in the III quarter of 2020. Thanksgiving will be November 26th and December holidays will follow. We can say that the last opportunity to start the genesis this year is the middle of November, and four months remain before it. Most likely, the launch of the zero phase may take place on January 3, on the twelfth anniversary of Bitcoin, ”said Justin Drake.
Drake tweeted that the developers themselves complicated the process of launching Ethereum 2.0, focusing on working with various clients and design iterations. Earlier, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said that before starting the zero phase, you need to make sure the multiclient test network runs smoothly.
In May, Ethereum developers launched the first Ethereum 2.0 multi-client test network, Schlesi, and a new iteration of the test network, Altona, was scheduled for June 29th.
Developer Danny Ryan believes customer diversity enhances network security. If any critical error occurs in one client, the network will be able to continue working if most nodes work with other clients. However, this is precisely what complicates the transition to Ethereum 2.0.
Buterin later wrote that he did not agree with Drake's assumption about the launch date of the zero phase. He believes that this should be done much earlier, regardless of the level of its readiness. Buterin said that it took four months to deploy the zero phase of Ethereum 1.0 since the launch of the first multi-client test network. We can say that with Ethereum 2.0, the countdown has already begun in early July after the launch of Altona. According to Buterin, the zero phase of Ethereum 2.0 has a more complex consensus (PoS) compared to Ethereum 1.0. But at the same time, it is simpler than Ethereum 1.0 at the network level, since in this phase there is no complex Virtual Machine (VM), and there is no difficulty with the PoW algorithm optimized for the GPU.
In addition, Ethereum 2.0 will not have zero-phase critical applications, which reduces the risk of failures, despite a larger ecosystem. Therefore, Buterin does not see serious reasons why the launch of the zero stage may take longer than was spent on the deployment of a similar phase of Ethereum 1.0.
