Ethereum 2.0 ‘Dress Rehearsal’ Gets a Second Shot With Zinken Testnet

Developers will take a second whack at a final Ethereum 2.0 testnet after the first, Spadina, failed due to “critical peering issues.”

AccessTimeIconOct 1, 2020 at 2:49 p.m. UTC
Updated Sep 14, 2021 at 10:03 a.m. UTC
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Ethereum developers will take a second whack at a final Ethereum 2.0 “dress rehearsal” after the first, Spadina, failed due to “critical peering issues,”  Ethereum Foundation researcher Danny Ryan said in a tweet Wednesday. 

  • The second testnet, named Zinken, will launch Oct. 12 at 12:00 UTC.
  • Ryan said he is “primarily looking for a clean client release process and minimal headaches for users” with Zinken.
  • The dress rehearsal testnets were created to give Ethereum stakers another practice run at moving ether (ETH) into the Eth 2.0 deposit contract, a necessary step before the new blockchain can start working.
  • Spadina hit a snag due to “configuration parameters” with Prysmatic Labs’ Prysm client, the team said in a post-mortem.
  • “We lagged behind in terms of taking Spadina seriously, having a detailed checklist, and overall having a release ready before the genesis event,” the team said.
  • Ryan added the dress rehearsal’s load was tilted unfavorably toward Prysm, which took on the lion's share of the testnet’s users.
  • The same issue – stakers picking Prysm over the four other available Eth 2.0 clients – also presented itself during August’s Medalla testnet.

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