Launched on August 4, the final ETH 2.0 testnet named Medalla attracted 20,349 validators, with 3,670 more in the queue. For staking, 651,168 test ETH have been deposited. On-chain statistics monitoring is available at the testnet blockchain explorer blockchain explorer or in the dedicated section Etherscan
The first few blocks indexed on https://t.co/Tl11wAi12E 😀 pic.twitter.com/y0zp9SQ7UW
— Etherscan.io (@etherscan) August 4, 2020
Ethereum developer Hudson Jameson expects further growth in the number of validators and urged people to drum up enthusiasm for the forthcoming ETH 2.0 launch.
2/2 low number of validators and how it will improve as more validators come online! This is what testnets are for and I’m excited to see the situation develop as we get more folks online on the testnet. Get hype. Eth2 is coming 🙂
— Hudson Jameson (@hudsonjameson) August 4, 2020
Medalla does not use real ETH and does not allow earning real staking rewards. The network is aimed solely at preparing the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization for the transition to the Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism.
What is Ethereum 2.0?
All testnets up to now were considered devnets, intended for developers of clients and participants in the Ethereum Foundation. Unlike them, Medalla’s stability is almost fully supported by validators.
In the initial stage the new network supported five clients: Lighthouse, Nimbus, Prysm, Teku and Lodestar. In the future, Cortex and Trinity are expected to be supported.
If there are no glitches after three months of testing, the launch of the first phase of Ethereum 2.0 on the mainnet will take place on November 4.
In addition to running a node, users can test staking through third-party services, such as Rocketpool.
Earlier, the Ethereum Foundation and Consensys launched a test version of Launchpad. It is a launch panel to prepare validators for staking in the second version of the Ethereum protocol.
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