New Ethereum Testnet “Holesky” will be launched in September

While the Goerli testnet is slated to retire next year, a new Ethereum testnet dubbed “Holesky” will launch next month.

Following Ethereum's tradition of naming testnets after train stations, the name Holesky comes from Nadrazi Holesovice, a metro station in Prague.

So Long Goerli, Hello Holesky

There are two widely used Ethereum testnets – Gourley and Sepoli.

Gurley, the older of the two, was launched in 2019. Since then, it has become a popular testing environment for Ethereum developers. By providing a space for testing, Goerli is used to test new ideas without spending on gas bills and iron out bugs before the Mainnet is released.

While Goerli has been instrumental in the development of the Ethereum ecosystem, Testnet will retire in January 2024. And in recent months, the Ethereum Foundation has been encouraging developers to migrate to the new Sepoli in anticipation of Goerli's upcoming iteration.

However, before that, a new testnet will enter the family. And during the meeting this week, the main developers of Ethereum confirmed that Holesky will be launched for the first time in September.

Although Holesky is similar in design to Sepolia, it is intended to be used more for infrastructure and protocol development. Meanwhile, Sepoli remains a testing ground for Ethereum-based applications.

Big cap on Holesky ETH supply

One of the main advantages of Ethereum testnets is that they run on parallel currencies instead of Mainnet ETH. For example, Goerli uses GoETH.

Test tokens are freely available to developers. But their distribution at Gourley is vulnerable to bottlenecks. Due to the limited supply of GoETH, most Goerli faucets limit the amount developers can receive each day.

To solve this problem, Sepolia has no hard cap on the total amount of tokens in circulation. As a result, pipe suppliers are able to supply a very large amount of CPETH to developers.

Unlike Sepolia, Holesky will have a constant supply of testnet tokens. However, at 1.6 billion, the capital will still be much larger than the total supply of mainnet ETH, which is currently around 120 million.