The Ethereum 2.0 or ETH 2.0 journey continues with the Spadina Testnet launch. This is part of the Ethereum 2.0 roadmap to improve scalability, security and programmability. Spadina will run in parallel alongside the Medalla Testnet. Developers can use both networks to test Ethereum 2.0 features. This paves the way to ETH 2.0 which is expected to launch later this year, but this is not always certain. Many factors (e.g. bugs, divergence in viewpoint, etc.) can arise that could lead to delays, as often happens with the development community.
The genesis for the Spadina testnet has been set to September 29, 2020 (“dress rehearsal” v0.12.2 Ethereum 2.0 multi-client testnet “Spadina v0.12”) with a genesis time of 1601380800 (12 PM UTC). Once the testnet is up, developers can begin testing deposits and beacon nodes on the network. The testnet uses only 1,024 validators which is far less than what would be required on the mainnet (16,384 validators).
The purpose for Spadina is further test the crucial features for ETH 2.0 Serenity Phase 0. This includes deploying smart contracts for making deposits and generating the genesis block on the network. Depending on how successful and confident developers are during the testing, it can very well continue into 2021 or lead to the release of ETH 2.0 much sooner. This requires more understanding and participation from the community to determine if the upgrade can be implemented on the Ethereum mainnet.
ETH 2.0 introduces the Beacon Chain with sharding and the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. These are upgrades that address scalability problems in the Ethereum protocol. The target is 100,000 transaction per second (TPS). The challenge is to scale without sacrificing too much security and decentralization. With PoS, mining will be replaced by staking, introducing a new incentive system to reward nodes that contribute to the security and efficiency of the Ethereum blockchain.
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