The long-awaited new version of Ethereum’s decentralised platform is close, with its deposit contract expected to launch this week.

Ben Edgington, a developer at Ethereum-focused software company ConsenSys, posted a blog post this week in which he said: “As I understand it, we are good to go: deposit contract in the next few days; beacon chain genesis 6-8 weeks later.”

Edgington adds the disclaimer that it’s not an official statement.

Ethereum 2.0 is...