Ethereum developer Danny Ryan revealed that the final Ethereum 2.0 testnet will launch on August 4th. The mainnet launch is scheduled for November 4th.
Earlier this month, Ethereum's other lead developer, Justin Drake, said the testnet should be up and running for at least three months, and the update might not wait until next year. However, later the developers reported that the long-awaited hard fork is already ready for full-scale testing.
The testnet will support various Ethereum clients, and unless issues are found and all prerequisites are met, the mainnet will launch on November 4th. The earliest date for the creation of the first block is August 4 at 16:00 or 17:00 Moscow time. The developer added that Launchpad, a training service for making ETH deposits, will be added to the testnet.
Ryan has already clarified on several occasions that the launch of the update is delayed due to the multi-client model. Working with multiple clients is critical to maintaining a high level of network security. This means that if one client goes down, then the network will continue to work, since most of the nodes will work on other clients.
Recall that in May, the first Ethereum 2.0 Schlesi multi-client testnet was launched, and in June, Altona, a new iteration of the testnet, was launched. The developers announced their stable work, and by the end of June the number of validators reached over 20,000.