Louisa Crawford
November 18, 2024 14:36
The IOTA Foundation is releasing a public testnet and DevNet to facilitate exploration of the IOTA Rebased protocol, with the goal of improved stability and experimental feature testing.
The IOTA Foundation has launched two new test environments, Public Testnet and DevNet, to explore the capabilities of the IOTA Rebased protocol. According to the IOTA Foundation blog, this environment is designed to enhance stability and facilitate experimental functional testing.
Public testnet: stability and long-term testing
The public testnet provides a stable, long-term environment for developers, validators, and users to test applications and interactions with the rebased IOTA protocol. This serves as a staging environment for potential protocol upgrades prior to deployment on mainnet. Unlike previous testnets, the current iteration emphasizes maintaining continuous operation without data resets. The IOTA Foundation plans to further decentralize the public testnet by onboarding validators through a dedicated program.
The testnet will feature an initial supply of 4.6 billion IOTA tokens managed by the IOTA Foundation, with a portion allocated to Faucet. To access the public testnet, users can download the IOTA Wallet browser extension from the Chrome Store and request tokens from the faucet. You can also explore network activity through IOTA Explorer.
DevNet: Experimental functional testing
DevNet is tailored to quickly test potential protocol upgrades and provides a less stable environment than the Public Testnet. It is reset periodically to accommodate new features and protocol changes. The network contains IOTA mainnet ledger data for comprehensive testing performed securely to prevent replay attacks.
The IOTA Foundation maintains full control of DevNet to ensure rapid network resets and upgrades, but developers are encouraged to use this environment to test new protocol features relevant to their applications. Detailed instructions for accessing DevNet can be found on the IOTA documentation site.
Moving Forward with IOTA Rebased
The introduction of this testing environment is an important step in the development of IOTA Rebased. Developers, validators, and enthusiasts are invited to participate in these platforms, test applications, and provide feedback. This joint effort aims to improve the IOTA Rebased protocol ahead of its potential mainnet launch.
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