Testnet

Last updated March 03, 2025

In blockchain technology, a testnet is an instance of a blockchain powered by the same or a newer version of the underlying software, to be used for testing and experimentation without risk to real funds or the main chain.^[1] Testnet coins are separate and distinct from the official mainnet coins, don't have value, and can be obtained freely from faucets.^[2]

Testnets allow for the development of blockchain applications without the risk of losing funds.^[3]

A bug was discovered in the Bitcoin Core software that gave miners the ability to take down essential parts of the Bitcoin infrastructure (nodes) by sending a 'bad' block to the blockchain.^[4]

References

↑ Franco, Pedro (21 October 2014). Understanding Bitcoin: Cryptography, Engineering and Economics. John Wiley & Sons. p. 74. ISBN 978-1-119-01914-5.
↑ Badr, Bellaj; Horrocks, Richard; Wu, Xun (Brian) (30 November 2018). Blockchain By Example: A developer's guide to creating decentralized applications using Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Hyperledger. Packt Publishing Ltd. p. 19. ISBN 978-1-78847-391-0.
↑ Hu, Yao-Chieh; Lee, Ting-Ting; Chatzopoulos, Dimitris; Hui, Pan (15 June 2018). "Hierarchical interactions between Ethereum smart contracts across Testnets". Proceedings of the 1st Workshop on Cryptocurrencies and Blockchains for Distributed Systems. Association for Computing Machinery. pp. 7–13. doi:10.1145/3211933.3211935. ISBN 9781450358385. S2CID 134234291.
↑ Canellis, David (2018-09-27). "Bitcoin hard fork nightmare becomes reality after testnet splits". TNW | Hardfork. Retrieved 2022-10-10.

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[1] Franco, Pedro (21 October 2014). Understanding Bitcoin: Cryptography, Engineering and Economics. John Wiley & Sons. p. 74. ISBN 978-1-119-01914-5.

[2] Badr, Bellaj; Horrocks, Richard; Wu, Xun (Brian) (30 November 2018). Blockchain By Example: A developer's guide to creating decentralized applications using Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Hyperledger. Packt Publishing Ltd. p. 19. ISBN 978-1-78847-391-0.

[3] Hu, Yao-Chieh; Lee, Ting-Ting; Chatzopoulos, Dimitris; Hui, Pan (15 June 2018). "Hierarchical interactions between Ethereum smart contracts across Testnets". Proceedings of the 1st Workshop on Cryptocurrencies and Blockchains for Distributed Systems. Association for Computing Machinery. pp. 7–13. doi:10.1145/3211933.3211935. ISBN 9781450358385. S2CID 134234291.

[4] Canellis, David (2018-09-27). "Bitcoin hard fork nightmare becomes reality after testnet splits". TNW | Hardfork. Retrieved 2022-10-10.

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