Mike from Frontier has now stated that Beta 3 will be a partial wipe. Players will retain any money they have earned, ships, upgrades and the like will be converted to money to be taken into Beta 3.
Sources...
http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showpost.p ... count=1573
http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showpost.p ... count=1642
http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showpost.p ... count=1646
-ZATZAi