Although the internet has been quieter than usual, we have been very busy hacking eth2! Between Devcon5 and staying focused on work, it seems like we’ve left the community in the dark on a few things. Here’s a quick update to fill in the gaps.
Deposit contract
Although the deposit contract was writing, testedAnd formally verifiedWe are working to allow BLS standardization to stabilize before launch. One of eth2’s goals is to be easily interoperable with other blockchains and systems in general, and to that end we don’t want our BLS signatures to go the way of keccak (oops!).
The BLS standard (BLS Signature, Hash to curve) has recently reached a point of stability with a number of blockchain teams on board (Eth2, Chia, Filecoin, Algorand, etc.). There is an IETF meeting in November where we hope the project will be further cemented. That said, official standards may take some time, so those involved plan to signal public support for the project and enter into a “blockchain agreement” to use the standard as written, whatever its final form. within the IETF. This way, if this becomes the keccak of signatures, we will not be alone. 🙂
Fortunately, the deposit contract does not need to be released into production until Phase 0 launches, so this emphasis on standardization should not have an effect on the Phase 0 launch date.
Eth2 test networks
If you follow ethresearch, the spec repository, or one of Devcon’s many workshops, we have modified the partitioning proposal in a way that dramatically improves the developer and user experience: cross-shard communication between all shards at each location. To facilitate this improved design, we need to slightly modify the Phase 0 specification. To do this, limiting disruption to Phase 0 development and testnets, we have opted for simplification: completely removing cross-links from phase 0 (they were deleted anyway). This change is coded and under final review here and should be released for development within the week.
We expect the multi-tenant public testnets to launch shortly after the completion of this simplification change, so that this update will make it easier to progress from Phase 0 to mainnet and ultimately , facilitates the delivery of phases 1 and 2.
Eth2 test networks are coming! Individual customers are in the process of launching certain networks intended for private and public consumption. Many customers simply receive their eth1-to-eth2 machines in place, so these single-client test networks are useful for initially testing this component. On these networks there will be some limited multi-client testing, but it will be largely stable due to the majority of single clients.
Once customers have adequately tested larger single-client networks and have time to incorporate the Phase 0 changes, we will move full speed ahead to public multi-client networks. We’re just as excited about this as you are and will post more information about getting involved (stake your eth) coming soon to testnets and mainnet. Casper is indeed arriving.
