The Ethereum Foundation has finally announced a launch date for Ethereum 2.0. This should take place on December 1, 2020.
It has now been several weeks since, in turn, several Ethereum 2.0 developers announced a possible launch for the year 2020 .
Finally, the Ethereum Foundation published yesterday, Wednesday, November 4, a blog post announcing the deployment of the Ethereum 2.0 deposit agreement. As a reminder, this contract allows future validators to deposit their ETH in anticipation of the launch of the blockchain.
Although the contract has been deployed, the genesis block – the first block of the blockchain – is scheduled for December 1, 2020, at the earliest.
“As soon as possible” , because the network requires the deposit of 524,288 ETH by 16,384 different validators in order for the genesis block to be generated.
Ethereum 2.0 far from being usable as it is
Although Ethereum 2.0 is seen by many as the lifesaving solution that will free Ethereum from its congestion problems, the blockchain will not be usable for several years.
“None of what you consider to be the core functionality of Ethereum will be activated as part of phase zero. ” – Tim Ogilvie, CEO of Staked at Decrypt
Indeed, phase 0, which should be initiated on December 1, only includes the launch of the beacon chain. This Proof of Stake blockchain will be the backbone of Ethereum 2.0.
Subsequently, phase 1 will allow the transfer of “ETH2”, will introduce smart contracts as well as shards, a kind of independent subnetwork which is synchronized by the beacon chain. Finally, the second and last phase will reintroduce the functionalities of the smart contracts that we know and the entire ecosystem that goes with it.
The most optimistic estimates for the launch of phase 1 are 6 months, and 2 years for phase 2. The transition will be a painful process over many years. For the initial stages of Ethereum 2.0, it will exist as a parallel system alongside Ethereum 1.0 and at some point in the future the plan is to merge the two systems back into one.
Either way, the Ethereum ecosystem shouldn’t be resting on this news. In view of the announced deadlines, the deployment of second layer solutions remains vital to keep the network competitive until the final launch of Ethereum 2.0.
