From: Sjors Provoost <sjors@sprovoost•nl>
To: Bitcoin Development Mailing List <bitcoindev@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [bitcoindev] Does anyone still need testnet3?
Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2025 09:52:10 +0100 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <9FAA7EEC-BD22-491E-B21B-732AEA15F556@sprovoost.nl> (raw)
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
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next reply other threads:[~2025-03-14 8:56 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 3+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2025-03-14 8:52 Sjors Provoost [this message]
2025-03-14 9:12 ` 'Andreas Schildbach' via Bitcoin Development Mailing List
2025-03-14 9:31 ` Sjors Provoost
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