Ehereum 2.0 Welcomes First Comer – As Ethereum 2.0 launches in a few days, Prysmatic Labs has released the first version of its client Prysm, compatible with the Ethereum 2.0 mainnet. Questions relating to decentralization, however, remain unresolved.
The Prysm customer ready for take off
A few weeks after its launch, the Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract finally reached the 524,000 ETH needed to launch the beacon chain .
As a result, the launch of the beacon chain, which is also equivalent to the creation of the first block, will take place on December 1 .
With the famous date fast approaching, the company Prysmatic Labs has just deployed version 1.0.0 of its Ethereum 2.0 client, Prysm .
“We are pleased to announce Prysm version 1.0.0 with full Ethereum 2.0 mainnet support. “
Preston Van Loon, Ethereum developer on Github
This makes Prysm the first Ethereum 2.0 client to be ready for mainnet launch. Despite this, Prysmatic Labs does not rule out the possibility of one or more patch versions being deployed before the launch of the beacon chain.
What about centralization?
While this news is good for the launch of Ethereum 2.0, it will not be without impact on centralization.
Indeed, during the Medalla testnet , initiated last August, an overwhelming majority of nodes – 96% – used the Prysm client.
This centralization around a single client poses many problems. Indeed, one of the objectives of Ethereum 2.0 and more particularly of its compatibility with several clients, was to resolve the problem of dependence on the client Geth encountered on Ethereum 2.0.
Hopefully other customers will get ready for the launch of the beacon chain and that decentralization will be more marked than during the Medalla testnet. It is also up to validators not to all rush to Prysm and explore the use of other clients.