From: "'Andreas Schildbach' via Bitcoin Development Mailing List" <bitcoindev@googlegroups.com>
To: Sjors Provoost <sjors@sprovoost•nl>,
Bitcoin Development Mailing List <bitcoindev@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [bitcoindev] Does anyone still need testnet3?
Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2025 10:12:57 +0100 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <7c28f8e9-d221-4633-8b71-53b4db07fa78@schildbach.de> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <9FAA7EEC-BD22-491E-B21B-732AEA15F556@sprovoost.nl>
Hi Sjors,
thanks for asking.
Bitcoinj has just started to implement testnet4, but it's not finished
yet. And the next version 0.18 will probably not be released within 12
months, maybe longer.
By the way, testnet3 works great for us (for testing). I consider block
storms a feature, because it tests our code in rough conditions. We had
planned to support both testnets in the forseeable future.
https://github.com/bitcoinj/bitcoinj/
Then, there is btc-rpc-explorer, a self-hostable block explorer. It
doesn't yet support testnet4. I'm not affiliated to it, I'm just a user.
https://github.com/janoside/btc-rpc-explorer
Cheers,
Andreas
On 14/03/2025 09.52, Sjors Provoost wrote:
> Dear list,
>
> Testnet 4 was proposed last year in BIP94 [0] and is supported by Bitcoin Core since v28.
>
> To make Bitcoin Core easier to maintain we would like to drop support for Testnet3 in a future release. This will happen no earlier than v30 this fall. The upcoming v29 release still supports it, and will throughout its maintenance period [1].
>
> The network itself can't be deleted, so anyone willing to maintain node software themselves can keep using testnet3 until the end of time.
>
> One of the motivations for introducing testnet4 was that testnet3 became increasing impractical to use due to block storms. So perhaps everyone already moved on to using testnet4 or a signet.
>
> As an aside, it's possible to create a pure proof-of-work permissionless signet without any signatures, by setting the challenge to OP_TRUE. [2]
>
> However, if anyone is still using testnet3 and needs more time to move away from it, please let us know. E.g. as a reply to the list or a comment on the Github issue [3]. This could include libraries, staging environments, testnet wallets, etc.
>
> Although the v29 maintenance window will last for a few years, it's also important to know if dropping testnet3 would prevent you from upgrading to the next major node version. In other words, if migrating away from testnet3 would take you longer than all of 2025.
>
> Although "I don't feel like it" isn't a great technical argument, it's still useful to know what to expect and perhaps others can help.
>
> - Sjors
>
> [0] https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0094.mediawiki
> [1] https://bitcoincore.org/en/lifecycle/#maintenance-period
> [2] https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0325.mediawiki#specification
> [3] https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/31975
>
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Bitcoin Development Mailing List" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to bitcoindev+unsubscribe@googlegroups•com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/bitcoindev/7c28f8e9-d221-4633-8b71-53b4db07fa78%40schildbach.de.
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2025-03-14 13:01 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 3+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2025-03-14 8:52 Sjors Provoost
2025-03-14 9:12 ` 'Andreas Schildbach' via Bitcoin Development Mailing List [this message]
2025-03-14 9:31 ` Sjors Provoost
Reply instructions:
You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:
* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
and reply-to-all from there: mbox
Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style
* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
switches of git-send-email(1):
git send-email \
--in-reply-to=7c28f8e9-d221-4633-8b71-53b4db07fa78@schildbach.de \
--to=bitcoindev@googlegroups.com \
--cc=google.com@schildbach$(echo .)de \
--cc=sjors@sprovoost$(echo .)nl \
/path/to/YOUR_REPLY
https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line
before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox