The Holesky testnet meant to celebrate Ethereum’s one-year anniversary of The Merge will be rebooted after configuration errors caused a network crash.
Ethereum engineers plan to relaunch the Holesky public testnet following issues with the network’s initial deployment on Sep. 15.
The testnet, which developers released at 10 a.m. ET, encountered “major problems” due to network misconfigurations, according to Galaxy researcher Christine Kim. Devs said Holeksy would be launched again soon, but no definite date was mentioned.
Holesky was set to join Goerli and Sepolia as Ethereum’s third testnet. Testnets allow developers to simulate upgrades and run applications intended for the main network or mainnet. They are akin to dress rehearsals for blockchain builders to fix bugs and test deployments.
Tim Beiko, an Ethereum Foundation contributor, said developers allocated 1.6 billion testnet Ether (ETH) as Holesky’s genesis token supply. The massive testnet ETH pool is likely to incentivize use of the network.
Ethereum testnets
Regarding Ethereum testnets, there has been talk of sunsetting Goerli in early 2024. This possible outcome could place Holesky at the epicenter of developer activity on Ethereum and even networks compatible with Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)
Furthermore, developers launched Holesky on the one-year anniversary of The Merge, Ethereum’s switch from Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (PoS).
The Merge marked a massive structural upgrade for Ethereum, including changes to network participant roles and token emissions.
According to on-chain data dashboard ultrasound.money, Ethereum net token supply reduced by 0.24% or 299,922 ETH. This means that ETH’s supply is deflationary in terms of how many new tokens enter circulation annually.
The Merge also introduced staking on Ethereum, which is locking up ETH in a smart contract to earn rewards or qualify as a network validator among other incentives. Per Coinbase data, nearly 25% of ETH’s supply is staked. It amounts to over 20 million ETH tokens.
Ethereum boasts a $40 billion staking market with protocols like Lido Finance dominating the space.
