In a May 2020 interview, Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin announced that the developments surrounding Ethereum 2.0 are “on track.” Hinting to the imminent implementation of Phase 0, many community members expected the launch to take place in the current month of July, but this does not seem to be the case any more.
During the recent Ethereum AMA on Reddit, ETH developer Justin Drake listed a few things in the checklist before phase 0 was launched. The developer conveyed that, prior to the genesis launch of ETH 2.0, a public testnet with 3 or more clients should operate smoothly, an incentivized “attack net” running for at least 2-3 months, a bug bounty program and a serious differential fuzzing across different clients.
The developer’s requirement was pretty daunting, to say the least, and Drake suggested that ticking off every box would not be possible within the current third quarter of 2020. He said,
“As such, I’m now inclined to say that the earliest practical date for genesis is something like January 3, 2021 (Bitcoin’s 12th anniversary).”
Vitalik Buterin refused to agree with Justin Drake
Interestingly, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin disagreed with the timeline for phase 0 launch. He believed that the launch of ETH2 phase 0 was “some ways simpler” than ETH1, but also complex in other aspects. h However, he favored the early launch of phase 0, “regardless of the level of readiness.”
Now, such contradictory views from the same developer’s camp will possibly concern various Ethereum supporters in space. Although Vitalik has received support from some Redditors, it is imperative to note that it is not the first time a developer has scrutinized the launch timeline.
Back in May, Ethereum 2.0 testnet coordinator Afri Schoedon had countered Buterins’ “on-track” remark with the following tweet,
What Marco said. It's simple math.
The final spec is not implemented in any client and we didn't launch a coordinated testnet yet.
— Afr Schoe (@q9fmz) May 12, 2020
Although the premature launch of Ethereum 2.0 phase 0 will not benefit any of the parties, consistent delays since 2019 may be identified as a lack of clarity on the part of ETH supporters.
Several projects, such as Cardano and his vocal founder Charles Hoskinson, have already opined that Ethereum is not moving in the right direction. With Ethereum ‘s current transaction fee concerns and lack of positive movement in the chart, the Ethereum killer narrative may take flight again in space.
It will be interesting to see the launch of ETH 2.0 phase 0 over the next few months. If the launch actually ends up moving towards the beginning of 2021, it will be very important for developers to avoid making any mistakes in the implementation. Otherwise, the positive feeling surrounding ETH 2.0 may begin to fade into space.