diff --git a/beacon_chain/conf.nim b/beacon_chain/conf.nim
index 294ea8493..aab2ad700 100644
--- a/beacon_chain/conf.nim
+++ b/beacon_chain/conf.nim
@@ -113,6 +113,12 @@ type
     # migrateAll = "Export and remove the whole validator slashing protection DB."
     # migrate = "Export and remove specified validators from Nimbus."
 
+  DeploymentPhase* {.pure.} = enum
+    Devnet = "devnet"
+    Testnet = "testnet"
+    Mainnet = "mainnet"
+    None = "none"
+
   BeaconNodeConf* = object
     configFile* {.
       desc: "Loads the configuration from a TOML file"
@@ -515,6 +521,13 @@ type
         defaultValueDesc: "50"
         name: "sync-horizon" .}: uint64
 
+      deploymentPhase* {.
+        hidden
+        desc: "Configures the deployment phase"
+        defaultValue: DeploymentPhase.Mainnet
+        defaultValueDesc: $DeploymentPhase.Mainnet
+        name: "deployment-phase" .}: DeploymentPhase
+
       # TODO nim-confutils on 32-bit platforms overflows decoding integers
       # requiring 64-bit representations and doesn't build when specifying
       # UInt256 directly, so pass this through for decoding elsewhere.
diff --git a/beacon_chain/networking/network_metadata.nim b/beacon_chain/networking/network_metadata.nim
index 7bc919217..99f02faf7 100644
--- a/beacon_chain/networking/network_metadata.nim
+++ b/beacon_chain/networking/network_metadata.nim
@@ -79,15 +79,6 @@ type
     else:
       incompatibilityDesc*: string
 
-type DeploymentPhase* {.pure.} = enum
-  None,
-  Devnet,
-  Testnet,
-  Mainnet
-
-func deploymentPhase*(genesisData: string): DeploymentPhase =
-  DeploymentPhase.Devnet
-
 const
   eth2NetworksDir = currentSourcePath.parentDir.replace('\\', '/') & "/../../vendor/eth2-networks"
   mergeTestnetsDir = currentSourcePath.parentDir.replace('\\', '/') & "/../../vendor/merge-testnets"
diff --git a/beacon_chain/nimbus_beacon_node.nim b/beacon_chain/nimbus_beacon_node.nim
index 3f92342a3..023dd2f6b 100644
--- a/beacon_chain/nimbus_beacon_node.nim
+++ b/beacon_chain/nimbus_beacon_node.nim
@@ -624,7 +624,7 @@ proc init*(T: type BeaconNode,
     dag = loadChainDag(
       config, cfg, db, eventBus,
       validatorMonitor, networkGenesisValidatorsRoot,
-      genesisStateContents.deploymentPhase <= DeploymentPhase.Testnet)
+      config.deploymentPhase <= DeploymentPhase.Testnet)
     genesisTime = getStateField(dag.headState, genesis_time)
     beaconClock = BeaconClock.init(genesisTime)
     getBeaconTime = beaconClock.getBeaconTimeFn()