Ethereum 2.0 Testnet Only 90% Successful: What Happened?

The latest in a series of Ethereum 2.0 testnets, called Spadina, took place Tuesday but fewer participants meant it was just partly successful. Ethereum 2.0 lead coordinator Danny Ryan said the testnet achieved 90% of its target.

Spadina was supposed to last for 72 hours after it was launched. According to Cointelegraph, there were no major issues reported and that the blocks were handled successfully. The key problem was is the participation rate of validators. The first few rounds of validation saw 34% while the target percentage for those joining in the consensus process was supposedly 80%, the report said.

Also, those that signed up as validators were not able to bring their clients online by the time of the launch. Developers said it's also possible that since this was a testnet, stakeholders do not get penalized while they are offline. It may be noted that when Ethereum 2.0 goes live, there would be penalties for validators who are offline.

Since it was just a testnet, it was more about checking out potential issues so it was not a concern whether the testnet achieved 100% participation or not. After the process, Ryan said, "I think we’ve got 90% of what we wanted from this."

However, in a document shared by the team behind Prysm, which is one of the Ethereum 2.0 node implementations, it was said that there was a problem with finality during the testnet. Finality refers to the guarantee that past transactions never change, a key characteristic of blockchain. Prysm also said there was low participation, confusion, users sending invalid deposits and overall loss of confidence. They added that Prysm was not properly updated to support the Spadina testnet.

With no major issues highlighted, it appeared the testnet was fairly stable and could positively impact the community's anticipation in the Ethereum 2.0 launch. In Ethereum 2.0, the network transitions to proof-of-stake (PoS), validators, and not miners, will confirm block transactions and therefore receive block rewards.

When Phase 0 of Ethereum 2.0 launches, the current 1.0 will continue operating, which means Phase 0 will be a way to test the behavior of validators in a real scenario because testnets so far do not penalize or incentivize their behavior, Cointelegraph reported.