The Medalla test network for the upcoming Ethereum 2.0 update has not reached completion for thousands of epochs, and the validation rate has dropped to 1.5%. For normal network performance, 66% or higher participation is required. According to Trustnodes, Medalla may also have experienced a fork.
Developer Prysm Preston Van Loon suggests that the observed phenomenon may be related to the transition of users in the test network Zinken, launched earlier this week to test the deployment of zero phase Ethereum 2.0.
"We conducted a successful dress rehearsal on the Zinken short term test network. It's time to pay attention back to Medalla. If you have a validator node in Medalla and you have disabled it, please turn it back on. The network has not reached completion since Zinken started. We suspect that this is because users left Medalla for Zinken. If you're not going back to Medalla, please do a voluntary logout so that your validators don't cause problems with participation," he said.
Breaking the established requirements for Medalla validators doesn't have financial implications for their owners, so they can simply ignore the developers' call and destabilize the test network further.
At the same time, developers expect that after the launch of the main network Ethereum 2.0 even more users will leave Medalla. Therefore, they are considering launching a new long-term test network, which will run in parallel with the main network.
Also, you can restore the performance of Medalla itself. This will tentatively happen on November 3, when the system will cut the balances of inactive validators in half, thus forcibly depriving them of their respective powers.