On October 13, after the ETH 2.0 testnet Spadina was forced to declare a “failure” due to a large number of problems, the Ethereum development team launched the new testnet Zinken.
Danny Ryan, the head of the Ethereum 2.0 project, said in a tweet, “The Spadina testnet is very necessary, but the testnet test results highlighted some problems, such as CLI options, testnet configuration, genesis calculation errors, etc., these problems caused the testnet node Participation rate is extremely low. In order to deal with these problems, before Ethereum 2.0 Genesis, there will be at least another “dress rehearsal” test-Zinken.
According to Ryan, Zinken is the last rehearsal before the launch of Ethereum 2.0. “The client team is currently reviewing and making final preparations for the mainnet launch.”
Decrypt pointed out that, like the previous testnet Spadina, the Zinken testnet also focuses on Genesis. In order to launch Ethereum 2.0, the network first needs to have more than 16,000 validators (that is, users running the software) and 500,000 ETH. However, due to practical reasons, the number of pledged tokens on the Spadina and Zinken testnets has decreased.
“At present, Zinken, together with Medalla, another Ethereum 2.0 testnet (designed to replicate the fully functional Ethereum 2.0 blockchain), represents Ethereum developers’ efforts to transition from the network to the POS mechanism, and this will bring a A network with faster response and lower cost.” (Note: The Medalla testnet has attracted 74,726 validators and the number of pledged tokens exceeds 2.3 million)
It should also be noted that according to ConsenSys researcher and Ethereum 2.0 developer Ben Edgington, the creation of the Ethereum 2.0 beacon chain is expected to be realized within six weeks.
Edgington pointed out that the Sapphire, Topaz and Onyx networks of the Ethereum single-client testnet have been tested for a long time, and the Medalla testnet launched in August has also made good progress. Four high-quality, audited and tested clients are expected to run when the beacon chain is released, namely Teku, Lighthouse, Nimbus and Prysm. “It is expected that the Zinken testnet will be tested again in mid-October, and the deposit contract will be deployed within a few days. The goal is to achieve the creation of the beacon chain within six weeks.”
