Ethereum Blockchain Mergers Already Underway as Final ETH 2.0 Testnet Nears
Ethereum co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, recently posted on the progress being made on the interoperability between the two Ethereum chains. Serenity will usher in a completely new blockchain for the platform, but there will be a transition period when both the new and the old will need to work together.
Work on “the eth1 -> eth2 merge” is already happening. https://t.co/TfErDqcc9B
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) July 23, 2020
The original tweet was posted by lead developer Danny Ryan, however, it was largely incomprehensible to most, being a screenshot of a bunch of code. One reply in the thread confirmed that it was a demonstration that they have a prototype version of ETH 1.0 running as a shard on one of the ETH 2.0 testnets. Ryan also confirmed this:
“The current vision of the future of Ethereum is for the current chain to be integrated into the new eth2 consensus as a shard.”
Medalla Moves Closer
In a more comprehensive post, Ryan confirmed that the next Ethereum testnet for Beacon Chain, dubbed Medalla, will go live on August 4. He elaborated that this testnet is different from previous ones that have been for developers only.
“This is a major step up from Altona in the sense that Medalla is a testnet built for and maintained by the community. The multi-client testnets prior to Medalla were considered “devnets”, run primarily by client teams and members of the Ethereum Foundation,”
Medalla has some criteria for launch, the primary being a minimum of 16,384 validators (524,288 ETH). If this minimum is not met by 1 pm UTC on August 2, 48 hours before chain genesis, the chain will start later than predicted, and the exact time is still unknown.
There will be no fewer than four clients fully running at genesis, and these are lighthouse, nimbus, prysm, and teku. Developers have encouraged client diversity to add strength and resilience to the network and further stress test it.
ETH Price Update
Ethereum has been on a tear for the past few days as the news renews hopes of a mainnet launch before the end of the year. Prices have pumped to a five-month high, hitting an intraday peak of $280 a few hours ago. Since then, it has pulled back to settle at the $270 level.
Ethereum has gained a further 3% on the day at the time of writing and is up over 16% since the same time last week. For the trend to be considered intact, the asset must break its previous high of $288 on February 15, and close the day at a higher price.
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