MEW Founder: ‘The Full Reality of ETH 2.0 Is Still Years Away’

Kosala Hemachandra, the founder of MyEtherWallet (MEW), has told Cointelegraph the fully-fledged version of ETH 2.0 is still years away.

The first phase of the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade was originally set for Jan 2020 but then postponed to coincide with this week’s fifth anniversary.  It’s since been delayed again with a launch now expected sometime between November and early 2021.

While Hemachandra believes Phase 0 will launch sometime this year, he points out the full version of ETH 2.0 will not be up and running before 2022:

“I think the full reality of ETH 2.0 is at least a couple of years away.”

Beacon chain is only Phase 0

ETH 2.0, also called Serenity, consists of three phases — Phase 0: beacon chain, Phase 1: shard chains, and Phase 2: shard chain execution. Hemachandra noted:

“These days everyone refers to the beacon chain (the first step towards ETH 2.0) as ‘ETH 2.0’. I am highly confident the beacon chain will launch on the mainnet this year. It is on the final testnet now and already open for public bug bounty.”

Hemachandra added that taking a cautious approach to launching ETH 2.0 was a sensible strategy. “Software updates take time, especially when they deal with user funds, and an immutable blockchain,” he said.

But he also said it would be well worth the wait. “As we’ve seen with past Ethereum iterations, ETH 2.0 will once again change the definition of blockchain technology by creating a secure and sustainable system capable of competing with centralized scaling solutions,” he said. 

After five years, it is still a game changer

Hemachandra was there at Ethereum’s birth and looking back five years later he said its “growth had been exponential”.

“In some ways, it has redefined what blockchain technology is capable of. Today, the Ethereum community has many passionate developers, DApps that are friendly to new users, and plenty of well documented concepts.