Consistent advancement
tl;dr
Altair advancement
Altair, the inaugural anticipated upgrade of the Beacon Chain, persists in making consistent advancement. Last week, we launched the Beacon Chain specification v1.1.0-alpha.6 — Protostellar Evolution. Although this is an alpha release, unless there are security or practical engineering issues, the specification is expected to remain unchanged from this point forward.
Client groups are actively engaged as they successfully complete consensus test scenarios and launch temporary testnets. Teams will establish timelines in the following weeks as Altair code modifications stabilize and initial multi-client interoperability is executed.
If you wish to dive deeper into the enhancements forthcoming for the Beacon Chain in Altair, take a look at Vitalik’s latest release of annotated Altair specifications.
Rayonism conclusion and Merge advancement
The Rayonism hackathon concluded last week with the Nocturne testnet — a multi-client Merge testnet comprising 4 consensus engines and 3 execution engines for a total of 12 distinct client combinations.
Numerous nodes and thousands of validators constructed and secured a beacon chain that enabled native support for a comprehensive Ethereum application layer featuring accounts, contracts, and user transactions.
🎉 A massive thank you to all the involved client teams and to protolambda and Mikhail for leading the initiative 🎉
The Rayonism hackathon provided teams with the opportunity to swiftly prototype essential Merge designs and to enhance their understanding of how this integrated system will function in real-world scenarios. All groups now possess substantial familiarity with the Merge’s framework, and a clear perspective on how