What are blockchain testnets? 📝

GM Surgers!

Big week as two important Ethereum upgrades go live. Let’s dive in. 👇🏽

This week in crypto…

Everything you need to know to stay on top in Web3

🎉 Shapella goes live

Ethereum’s Shanghai and Capella upgrades are going live today, enabling staking withdrawals for the first time since the Merge. You can follow the upgrade live here. The Merge fully transitioned Ethereum into a proof-of-stake network, but people were able to stake ETH even before the Merge went live. Now, some eight months after the Merge, stakers can withdraw both the staked ETH and rewards.

Shapella will enable both partial and full withdrawals, with a limit of 1,800 validators who can fully withdraw per day. Here’s more info about the upgrades, a TLDR, and some thoughts on how Shapella might impact the ecosystem.

🗞️ In other news

📖 The crypto venture capital fund a16zcrypto just published their State of Crypto report for 2023. Read it here

🖼️ Reddit just dropped the third generation of their NFT avatars on Polygon.

🦊 MetaMask will offer the option to buy crypto with fiat, including debit or credit cards, PayPal, bank transfers, and instant ACH (Automated Clearing House).

TLDR: What are blockchain testnets? 📝

In a blockchain ecosystem, a testnet is a tool that mimics the original network. Testnets are used for experimenting and testing contracts before deploying to the main network (mainnet).

In essence, testnets are alternative blockchain networks that are used to test new features, upgrades, and applications before they are released on the mainnet, which is the live and operational blockchain network. Testnets are essential in the blockchain ecosystem because they provide developers and users with a safe environment to experiment, identify and fix bugs, and improve the overall performance of the blockchain. Interacting with the testnet does not have any effect on the mainnet.

Testnets typically operate with their own set of rules and protocols, which can be different from the mainnet.

For example, some testnets may have faster block times or lower transaction fees to make it easier for developers to test their applications quickly and cheaply. Other testnets may have additional features or functionalities that are not available on the mainnet.

Testnets can also have their own cryptocurrency which mimics the original currency of the original blockchain and is usually available through faucets for free. Cryptocurrency cannot be transferred from the testnet to mainnet and vice versa.

There are several types of testnets: development testnets, usually available to devs to test new features; public testnets that anyone can use to test dApps in a more realistic environment; token testnets that are designed to ensure tokens and their contracts function properly, as well as cross-chain testnets that test interoperability between different blockchain networks.

Some of the most popular Ethereum testnets are Sepolia, Goerli, and Rinkeby.

👀 Did you know?

Before the Merge was implemented on Ethereum mainnet, developers launched the update on all the main Ethereum testnets. In doing so, they were able to fix the bugs before the official launch and ensure that the Merge on the mainnet went as smooth as possible.

Want to dive in deeper? Some additional resources to check out:

👉🏽 Networks

👉🏽 Ethereum Testnets: What Are They and Why So Many?

👉🏽 Ethereum Test Networks

👉🏽 The History of Ethereum Testnets