After serving as a testing ground for the Ethereum network for almost 2 years, the Holesky network will now be phased out
Core developers in the Ethereum (ETH) ecosystem have dropped a significant update concerning the Holesky testnet. In a blogpost, the developers revealed that support for the Holesky testnet will halt come September 2025.
Why Holesky’s Shutdown Matters
Holesky has only existed for two years, when it was launched in September 2023. It was one of the two main testnets for Ethereum, the other being Sepolia. Holesky is a crucial public testnet for staking, infrastructure, and protocol development.
However, according to the blog post, Holesky has witnessed wide-ranging inactivity leaks as part of its recovery mechanism. Although the Holesky network restoration has been finalized, exited validators still need about one year to leave the validator set fully.
However, other features remain supported on the platform.
Ethereum developers have launched a replacement to tackle these inactivity leaks effectively. Notably, on March 26, a new testnet, Hoodi, will become active on the Pectra network upgrade.
The activation of Hoodi will come ahead of the mainnet release scheduled for the second quarter of 2025.
Meanwhile, infrastructure providers and staking operators have been advised to use Hoodi for validator testing.
Interestingly, despite the challenges with Holesky, Ethereum developers say they will keep it operational in the short term. They are looking to repurpose it as a core developer testnet for experiments, such as experimenting with gas limit increases or other stress tests.
Ethereum Gains Momentum Ahead of Pectra Upgrade
Experts say Holesky’s challenge is an example of the unforeseen hurdles that sometimes arise in the world of developers. Holesky was designed to mirror real network conditions as much as possible, supporting a staggering 1.4 million validators.
Despite the time and investment in Holesky, the blockchain has no choice but to discontinue the test network ahead of the Pectra upgrade.
Regardless of this setback, community members are still looking forward to the Pectra upgrade going live in early April. As per the earlier schedule, the testing timeline had targeted April.
Since the recent update on Holesky did not mention the date, the setback might not affect the previous timeline.
Ethereum users eagerly anticipate the Pectra upgrade, which promises to enhance their experience on the network. Notably, it will allow users to settle transaction fees in tokens other than ETH, and externally owned accounts can operate like smart contracts.
As of this writing, Ethereum has started a rebound move as its price jumped by 7.30% to $2,030.70 in the last 24 hours. Investors have also renewed interest in the coin as trading volume soared by 89.17% to $18.24 billion.
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