Ethereum Developers have realeased techinical specifications for the "Final" ETH 2.0 testnet

Ethereum 2.0 developers released the technical specifications for the latest and perhaps the last Phase 0 multi-client testnet on Wednesday. This testnet, codenamed Medalla, will be the fourth such network launched by Afri Schoeden and crew, following the likes of the late Schlesi and Witti as well as the currently operational Altona testnet. The Ethereum Foundation team intends for Medalla to be the first one that will be community maintained, as compared to the developer-centric nature of its recent ancestors.

Medalla could go live by Aug. 4 ("minimum genesis time"). The actual launch sequence won't commence until 48 hours after a minimum deposit of 524,288 ETH, representing 16,384 validators (32 ETH per validator slot), has been met. Users equipped with Goerli testnet ETH will soon be able to claim Medalla validator slots through an early version of "Launchpad," which will eventually serve as an interface for ETH 2.0 deposits. Medalla should have at least four clients running at genesis: Lighthouse, Nimbus, Prysm, and Teku. A fifth client, Lodestar, could make its inaugural testnet appearance at a later stage.

While in theory, the chain could be up as soon as Aug. 4, Quantstamp CEO Richard Ma has given a more conservative estimate of early September. In contrast, Fork Coordinator Afri Schoeden believes an August testnet launch will occur and allow for the ETH 2.0 launch sometime in November.

On a similar development front, three "attacknets" were launched this past week, one each for the Lighthouse, Prysm, and Teku clients. These attacknets will incentivize participation from whitehat hackers through bounties for bugs discovered and other attacks that are capable of disrupting the finality of the chain.