Ethereum 2.0 “Nearly Ready” for Launch, Says Auditor

The epic challenge to scale up Ethereum with (ETH 2.0) began in 2014. So far, it has been a game of two steps forward and one step back. This week brings a step forward. The smart-contract auditing company Quantstamp has concluded an audit of Teku, a piece of software developed by ConsenSys that allows for the staking of Ether. As a reminder, the new Eth2 will use a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) rather than a Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus algorithm, which means that users will stake ETH rather than simply mine it. According to Quantstamp CEO Richard Ma,

“Ethereum 2.0 is on track to deliver Phase 0 in the very near future.”

Mixed Signals

Unfortunately, the timeline for the Eth2 launch remains unclear. Quantstamp’s announcement comes just a week after an Etheruem researcher said the deposit contract would not be out until mid-November. Danny Ryan told the Bankless podcast that the smart contract which would allow stakers to stake Ether was still weeks away. Other setbacks have plagued Eth2 of late. In recent weeks, some testnets failed and validators dropped off the testnet. On Oct. 18, 2020, Ethereum developer Ben Edgington put the Ethereum Beaconchain’s launch weeks after the smart contract launch. In this way, Quantstamp’s announcement seems somewhat of a contradiction or is at least misleading. The fact that the Teku software is sound doesn’t mean the smart contract driving it is ready. Either way, the big event in Etheruem 2.0 phase 0 is the launch of the Beaconchain. This blockchain would allow for the protocol to transition from PoW to PoS while also allowing for “sharding,” an efficiency boost that reduces the amount of work validators have to do. This would still only be the first step. Beaconchain’s launch would not mean that Ethereum 2.0 is up and running, and devs still predict the full roll-out of the upgrade to happen in 2021.

Looking Good?

Still, things are moving in the right direction for Eth2, at least regarding token staking. Quantstamp’s auditing involved an interrogation of the software to test its limits and capabilities. Quanstamp says Teku passed the enforcement of consensus rules, code consistencies, and rewards and penalties management. The firm said the code was, “of the highest quality.” The audit also resolved issues surrounding DDoS attacks, errors from falling out of sync, and missing validation logic. The long-planned project helps an impatient community inch towards a network capable of handling today’s more crypto-savvy world.

Ни шагу назад!

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) July 11, 2020

Meanwhile, some ETH devs are tapping their watches. On July 11, 2020, developer Just Drake tweeted that the community wanted Eth2 by the end of 2020. Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum founder and wunderkind, replied “Ни шагу назад!”, apparently with some irony. This Russian phrase means, “Not a step backward!” During World War II, this was the name of the Soviet army’s policy by which retreating, scared, or deserting soldiers would be shot by their own comrades.