ETH 2.0 Serenity Could Be Delayed To 2021 According To Ethereum Dev

ETH 2.0 “Serenity” could be delayed until 2021 according to one Ethereum developer but Vitalik Buterin denies the rumors, as we are reading more in the upcoming Ethereum news.

We made Eth2 hard for ourselves:

* many design iterations
* many community clients vs one EF-led client
* libp2p vs devp2p; BLS12-381 vs BN254

We could have launched a year or two earlier the easy way. It was painful but it was right. Our investments will pay off for decades 🙂

— Justin Drake (@drakefjustin) May 15, 2020

The much-awaited launch of the ETH 2.0 Serenity update could be delayed by 2021 if the foundation developers that work on the project are to be believed. Ethereum’s co-founder Vitalik Buterin is sticking with his 2020 release regardless of the level of “readiness.” Ethereum developers took it to Reddit AMA yesterday and filed questions on the 2.0 update among others. One commenter was quick to ask Justin Drake about the launch of Phase 0 for ETH 2.0 while the developer was quick to note he would like to do four things before the protocol is launched:

1. public testnet with 3+ clients that will run smoothly for 2-3 months
2. create an incentivized “attack net” running for the same time period
3. create a new bug bounty program running for 2-3 months
4. a serious differential fuzzing across the clients

He then continued to explain:

 “I’m now inclined to say that the earliest practical date for genesis is something like January 3, 2021.”

Drake noted that they had made ETH 2.0 hard for themselves but Vitalik Buterin commented and presented his view sticking to the schedule for 2020 launch:

 “Eth 1 took 4 months from the first multi-client testnet to launch, and I’d argue the four-month clock started ticking for us at the beginning of July when Altona launched.”

Buterin said that the 2.0 phase zero is simpler on-net and that the protocol will not have any critical applications depending on it until phase 1 so the risks of breakage are lower. He added:

 “On the whole, I see no reason to take more time for the eth2 phase 0 launch cycle than we did for the eth1 launch.”

Altona testnet has launched! 🎉
And I'm validating on 4 different clients, each 2 nodes nodes.#ethereum #eth2

Lighthouse @sigp_io Nimbus @ethnimbus
Prysm @prylabs Teku @PegaSysEng

And soon Lodestar too @ChainSafeth 👀

Testnet stats: https://t.co/8nH2MdcggG pic.twitter.com/hbtX3Umd9N

— proto (@protolambda) June 29, 2020

Buterin noted that the Altona testnet was running smoothly and added that there are two clients at launch and increasing to 3-4 in a few months after the launch will be totally fine. The broader Ethereum community seemed not happy about the news and some suggested that the developers have to communicate clearly among themselves about the ETH 2.0 launch dates. Phase 0 was supposed to be a major catalyst for the ETH price but some believe that it will be bearish for ETH in the short term.