The first phase of the so-called Ethereum 2.0 test network will probably be launched in April. Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin reported this to cryptocurrency news site The Block.

“The best way to think about when phase 0 mainnet launch will take place is that we first need a multiclient testnet, then we wait for the testnet to run for some time without any problems, and if that is the case, we continue. This is a similar procedure to what we did for ETH 1 in 2015.

So it is not easy to predict when the launch of the mainnet will take place, although we are definitely expecting multiclient test networks very soon; April seems very likely”.

According to Buterin, who reports that the launch of ETH 2.0’s mainnet may still be some time away. Specifications of ETH 2.0 were recently checked by technology security company Least Authority which showed that the peer-to-peer (P2P) messaging system as well as the ‘block proposer’ system are two areas with potential security problems.

Buterin says that the ETH 2.0 team is currently working to address these issues, but they may be problems that can only be solved in the long term.

Least Authority reports that the P2P messaging system has a spam problem and recommends the implementation of a so-called BAR resistant protocol to prevent spam. Buterin says the problem already existed in ETH 1.0 and took some time to reduce spam. He expects this process to be repeated in ETH 2.0:

“In general, we take antispam for network security absolutely seriously. ETH 1 has taken some time to harden the network layer and there are currently many eyes focused on network problems. So I expect that DoS problems will weaken over time”.

Now that the audit process has been completed by Least Authority, the next step is to run the multiclient testnet (probably in April) and a so-called ‘bug bounty program’. That’s kind of a deal to compensate individuals who find and report bugs.