Ethereum developers launch the Hoodi Testnet in order to complete Pectra Testing

Ethereum’s developers have announced plans to shut down the biggest testnet on its network. Holesky will be retired and replaced by Hoodi, a brand new testing environment.

The March 19 blog postEthereum Foundation announces that the Holesky testing network will be discontinued after it was crippled in the last month’s much anticipated Pectra upgrade.

After technical issues in February during testing with Pectra, developers deprecated Holesky. Holesky’s validator network was unusable after the upgrade.

EF engineers made a change in March to fix the issue, but Holesky remained clogged. Sepolia’s (ETH) Ethereum-based platform, Sepolia experienced a similar issue.ETHSecond-largest testing environment. Developers were still able to locate a hotfix. The testnets allow developers to debug and simulate upgrades, such as Pectra’s network upgrade before the mainnet of Ethereum is deployed.

Since then, the Holesky network is finalized. However, it would still take about a year before all the exited validaters are removed. The exit queue is too large for Holesky to be used in a timely manner. While the stakers have access to all Pectra functions, including consolidations, deposits and more, they cannot test Holesky’s full lifecycle.

EF blog post

Paritosh Jayanthi, EF DevOps Engineer, and Tim Beiko, EF Core Coordinator, confirmed that a new testnet named Hoodi would replace Holesky. Devs will test Pectra using Hoodi, as part of the last dress rehearsal for a debut on mainnet. If all goes according to plan, the EF will ship Pectra on ETH mainchain by April 25, if the test is successful.