The launch of Medalla, the multi-client public testnet for Ethereum 2.0 validators, went live on the date planned by the developers, although the network did experience some glitches.
On August 4th, at around 01:00 pm UTC, the multi-client public testnet was launched hosting over 20.200 validators and 647.800 locked ETH. Medal It is the last of the test networks to be launched before the implementation of Ethereum 2.0, the update that will migrate to the network Ethereum from the system of Proof of Work (PoW) to the system of Proof of Participation (PoS).
Source: BeaconChain Medal
The official launch of the Medalla multi-client testnet is a significant step that brings the development team ever closer to the implementation of ETH 2.0. And although it was a successful launch, the testnet presented some bugs related to the percentage of actual participation, which directly affected the completion of the genesis block during its creation time. The network developers expected 80% participation from registered validators, but the reality is that initially there was only 57% of validators, who were actively participating in the validation of the network.
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ETH 2.0 developers are investigating the issue
While the network already has over 70% participation at the time of writing, developers were still hoping that the network would fix the problem on its own, and would gradually discard the registered but inactive validators on the network. ETH 2.0 developers believe that the problem arose because, although the number of registered validators exceeded the minimum number required to run the testnet, perhaps many of them were not running the validator software required for the network.
For his part, Danny Ryan, project coordinator, confirmed that Medalla joined five clients, including Prysmatic Labs' Prysmatic Labs, ChainSafe's Lodestar, PegaSys' Teku, Status 'Nimbus y Sigma Prime's Lighthouse.
Security equipment and guarantees for network operation
So far, Medalla has a total of 648.244 ETH deposited, at a rate of 32 ETH for each validator registered within the network. The funds deposited within Medalla are arranged as collateral for the operation of the testnet, which means that the network does not yet handle real ETH, but rather simulates ETH tokens through GöETH, which generate rewards with no real value for doing staking within Medalla. Therefore, validators will not generate real profits, for the moment, by keeping the funds deposited within the network. Likewise, the value of ETH at the date of this publication is $389,7 USD per unit, so the funds deposited in Medalla represent approximately $252,6 million.
Now, with the successful implementation of the test network, it is estimated that the launch of the Ethereum 2.0 update can take place this year, and the network can officially begin to operate. Ethereum Foundation, for its part, announced the creation of a security team that will be in charge of monitoring and guaranteeing the security and stability of the network, so if all goes well, then the chances of launching ETH 2.0 in November of this year are quite high.
Danny Ryan too said that the next step for the developers is the launch of the ETH 2.0 update on the mainnet:
“If the testnet is stable, Ethereum 2.0 is next on mainnet. This represents years of hard work by a huge number of engineers, researchers, and community members… We hope you are as excited as we are.”
Importance of Medalla Testnet in Ethereum 2.0
In his post, Ryan also called on the community participating in the testnet to maintain vigilance and monitoring over their validator nodes as if they were securing real value. According to the developer, validators should make the most of the testnet to rehearse all the processes they must perform as validators of the network, before the launch of ETH 2.0 on the mainnet.
“Get your nodes running well in advance, keep an eye on your validator performance, and keep an eye out for any critical updates to your client software… Treat your testnet validators as if they were securing real ETH.”
Finally, the developer reported on the launch of a new attack network, mc-attack-0, which is intended to find critical bugs within the testnet, and will reward researchers with up to $15.000 USD for detecting bugs.
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