Ethereum developers to shut down three testnet after switch to PoS

Users and companies are advised to migrate as soon as possible to Goerli or Sepolia testnets, which will continue to be upgraded

23.06.2022 - 08:10

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What’s new? Ethereum developers have announced that the Ropsten, Rinkeby, and Kiln testnets will be closed after the transition of the mainnet to the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus algorithm. To continue testing, users and developers are advised to migrate as soon as possible to Goerli or Sepolia testnets, which will continue to be upgraded. The Grey Glacier upgrade, which will change the parameters of the “difficulty bomb” is scheduled for block 15 050 000, and is expected to happen on June 29.

Ethereum’s blog post

The “difficulty bomb” is a special mechanism that will gradually reduce the mining speed of new blocks on the Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus algorithm, leading to reducing the profitability of mining.

What else is known about the shutdowns? Ethereum has many testnets where users and developers can test new features before uploading them to the mainnet. The testnets are a copy of the main blockchain, in which tokens and other assets have no value.

According to the developers, the testnets that will be shut down are considered deprecated. The Kiln testnet, launched in April to provide a post-merger testing environment, will be shut down in the second half of 2022. Ropsten will be shut down in the fourth quarter of 2022. The Rinkeby network will be shut down later than the others, in Q2-Q3 2023, until the testnet Sepolia, which replaces it, transitions to PoS.

The Goerli testnet will merge with the Prater Beacon Chain testnet. A new Beacon Chain has been created for Sepolia’s transition to PoS.

On June 8, the merger of blockchains on the PoW and PoS consensus algorithms in the Ropsten testnet was completed in preparation for the release of Ethereum 2.0. The mainnet is scheduled to migrate to PoS in August 2022. The upgrade will change the consensus algorithm from PoW to PoS, increasing the speed, efficiency, and scalability of the network. With it, the system will be able to provide an increased level of security and process more transactions.

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