The Ethereum 2.0 network is closer to a launch date, as a preliminary date has been unveiled for the final public testnet, on August 4.                                                                                                                                                                                 
The launch coordinator of the platform, Danny Ryan, announced the news on the testnet’s discussion board on Discord. 

“After discussions with client teams, the next multi-client testnet (mainnet config including min validator numbers) will have a min genesis time of August 4th.”

ETH 2.0 phase 0 has been operating on numerous testnets since the genesis block was created for Beacon Chain back in April, according to a Cointelegraph report.

Phase 0 is the initial stage of the long-awaited upgrade to Proof-of-Stake, and will radically increase the speed of transactions.

Rather than the present Proof-of-Work system, ETH 2.0 will be secured by users putting up at least a 32 ETH stake to operate a validating node. 

Three months ago, Beacon Chain went line on the Sapphire initial testnet using smaller 3.2 ETH deposits. Subsequently, 32 ETH nodes went live in May on the Topaz testnet.

In June, the Onyx testnet was operating with around 20,000 validators by the end of the month.

Ethereum has been faced with mounting pressure from a rise in the issuance of stablecoins and the DeFi boom.

Network fees and gas usage have risen to all-time highs, leaving the platform open to criticism from its detractors.

According to a Decrypt report: “ETH 2.0 has long been in development, and the Ethereum network is currently being pushed to its technical limits as the booming DeFi sector drives transaction volumes upward, potentially slowing the network down.”