PANews reported on March 19 that the Ethereum Foundation stated in its official blog that during the activation of the Pectra testnet, problems with the configuration changes of the deposit contract on the Ethereum testnet were exposed on the client side. While the recovery process of the Sepolia network was relatively straightforward and has now been fully restored, the Holesky network has seen a large number of inactive leaks in the recovery mechanism. The Holesky network has since completed final confirmation, but it will take about a year for the exiting validators to be completely removed from the validator set. While stakers can test deposits, merging, and all other Pectra features, the size of the exit queue makes Holesky unusable for testing the full validator lifecycle within a reasonable timeframe. To address this issue, a new testnet has been launched: Hoodi. It will activate the Pectra network upgrade at epoch 2048 (15:37:12, Wednesday, March 26, 2025, Beijing time). In the future, staking operators and infrastructure providers should use Hoodi for validator testing. To allow time for migration, the Holesky testnet will be supported until September 2025. With the exception of validator exits, all other Pectra features can be tested on Holesky.
Summary of testnet and its uses:
- Holesky: Validator and staking provider (expected termination date September 30, 2025). Client developers will also use Holesky to test gas limit increases and other protocol stress tests.
- Sepolia: Application and tool developer (expected termination date September 30, 2026).
- Hoodi: Validator and staking provider (expected termination date is September 30, 2028).
- Planned Sepolia replacement: expected launch in March 2026.
