Justin Drake: Ethereum 2.0 launch is due July 30, 2020

Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake put forward a “natural candidate” for the launch date of the updated version of the Ethereum 2.0 protocol.

In a discussion on GitHub regarding Ethereum 2.0 specifications, he said that it would be advisable to release the zero block of the new network on July 30, 2020, the fifth anniversary of the creation of Ethereum. At this point, he said, it can be expected that a test network based on several clients will work stably for at least three months.

Danny Ryan, another researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, thinks Drake’s prediction is too pessimistic and argues that the null block can be released much earlier than indicated in the discussed code change request.

Other participants in the discussion refrained from forecasts and called for a return to this issue later, when the development will be at a deeper stage.

Earlier this month, the first version of the Ethereum 2.0 test network with multi-client support was launched.

In addition, at a recent meeting, the developers clarified the issue of the upcoming Muir Glacier hard fork, which contains a proposal to improve the Ethereum EIP 2384, designed to delay the complexity bomb by another 4 million blocks. It is expected that the update will take place at block 9,200,000, which will be tentatively produced on January 6.

Commenting on the recent Istanbul hard fork, PegaSys Ethereum-based startup product manager Tim Beiko noted that the update was successful: