Hassan Maishera
TL;DR
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Ethereum Foundation developers are set to launch a new testnet before the final Pectra upgrade deployment.
Ethereum Developers to Rollout the Hoodi Testnet
Ethereum Foundation developers are set to launch a new testnet called Hoodi and is expected to launch next week, on March 17.
This latest development comes a week after Ethereum researchers and developers met to discuss the fallout from the problematic Holesky and Sepoli hard forks. The researchers mulled over the idea to "shadow fork" the Holesky testnet to continue probing the much-anticipated Pectra upgrade.
Holesky, a key Ethereum testnet network, lost finality due to a configuration bug approximately two weeks ago during a Pectra upgrade activation. Although the network regained finality on Monday, it is not entirely usable for all research purposes.
The Pectra upgrade is set to enhance Ethereum's usability and scalability. The mainnet upgrade includes plans to reduce the cost of data availability by increasing the number of "blob" transactions for Layer-2s. Doing so will increase staking limits and introduce account abstraction, which significantly expands the functionality of smart contracts and wallets.
The Pectra upgrade is expected to go live on the Ethereum mainnet on April 25approximately 30 days after the upgrade is planned to be deployed on the new Hoodi testnet. The Ethereum Foundation is working to invest more resources into this network and run a "similar validator count" as the Ethereum mainnet.
The developers agreed to launch a new testnet instead of pursuing other proposals. The Hoodi testnet will give researchers a dedicated network to test validator exits, which is impossible on Holesky due to a backed-up exit queue. Holesky and Sepolia will operate to test other research concerns.
Ether, Ethereum’s native coin, is up 1% in the last 24 hours and trades at $1,892 per coin.
