- “Holesky”, the next Ethereum testnet will launch next month
- New testnet will replace Goerli and seeks to address ETH supply challenges
- The developers plan to discontinue Goerli in January 2024
A new Ethereum testnet is about to be born.
The developers of the Ethereum blockchain agreed in a recent meeting that they are ready to get a new testnet up and running. Dubbed “Holesky,” the next testnet is scheduled to launch on September 15 and aims to offer enhanced test support for developers working on the Ethereum network.
Testnets, or testnets, act as clones of the mainnet for experimental purposes. They provide test environments for developers to find bugs and test changes to their apps before they are released into a larger, riskier environment. Ethereum has two testnets: Goerli and Sepolia.
Ethereum Foundation developer Parithosh Jayanthi told the meeting that developers tested 1.4 million validators on Holesky, and were able to finalize the network, according to reports.
He added that, after consulting the developers on how many testnet tokens should circulate on the new testnet, an agreement was reached to put 1.6 billion ETH into circulation on Holesky.
This substantial supply is designed to address the challenges developers face when acquiring test ETH on the main testnets. The large amount of test ETH will allow for easier access to test Ethereum smart contracts, as highlighted by The Block. It is worth noting that these tokens do not have a real market value.
New testnet for Ethereum
Holesky, named after a metro station in Prague, Czech Republic, will replace the Goerli testnet.
Launched in 2019, Goerli was instrumental in Ethereum‘s transition to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) and has become a popular test environment among developers. By providing a space for experimentation, Goerli is used to test new ideas without spending on transaction fees (gas) and to fix bugs prior to mainnet launch.
While Goerli has been invaluable to the growth of the Ethereum ecosystem, the testnet has been experiencing difficulties, and now developers plan to decommission it in January 2024. The Ethereum Foundation has been encouraging developers to use Sepolia in anticipation of issues. de Goerli and his expected suspension.
While Holesky will have similarities to Sepolia in terms of design, the new testnet will be primarily intended for infrastructure and protocol development. The two testnets also differ in the circulating supply of tokens. While Sepolia does not have a maximum limit, the new testnet will have a limit (albeit high enough).
Holesky is expected to pave the way for two future Ethereum upgrades: an execution layer upgrade called Cancun and a consensus layer upgrade called Deneb. Its launch is scheduled for September 15, which interestingly is the same date as the Merge rollout in 2022.
The developers had already advanced plans in February to launch a new testnet towards the end of 2023; although initially, they had baptized it “Holli“.
