Hi Sjors,
thanks for asking.
Bitcoinj has just started to implement testnet4, but it's not finished
yet. And the next version 0.18 will probably not be released within 12
months, maybe longer.
By the way, testnet3 works great for us (for testing). I consider block
storms a feature, because it tests our code in rough conditions. We had
planned to support both testnets in the forseeable future.
https://github.com/bitcoinj/bitcoinj/
Then, there is btc-rpc-explorer, a self-hostable block explorer. It
doesn't yet support testnet4. I'm not affiliated to it, I'm just a user.
https://github.com/janoside/btc-rpc-explorer
Cheers,
Andreas
On 14/03/2025 09.52, Sjors Provoost wrote:
Dear list,
Testnet 4 was proposed last year in BIP94 [0] and is supported by Bitcoin Core
since v28.
To make Bitcoin Core easier to maintain we would like to drop support for
Testnet3 in a future release. This will happen no earlier than v30 this fall.
The upcoming v29 release still supports it, and will throughout its maintenance
period [1].
The network itself can't be deleted, so anyone willing to maintain node
software themselves can keep using testnet3 until the end of time.
One of the motivations for introducing testnet4 was that testnet3 became
increasing impractical to use due to block storms. So perhaps everyone already
moved on to using testnet4 or a signet.
As an aside, it's possible to create a pure proof-of-work permissionless signet
without any signatures, by setting the challenge to OP_TRUE. [2]
However, if anyone is still using testnet3 and needs more time to move away
from it, please let us know. E.g. as a reply to the list or a comment on the
Github issue [3]. This could include libraries, staging environments, testnet
wallets, etc.
Although the v29 maintenance window will last for a few years, it's also
important to know if dropping testnet3 would prevent you from upgrading to the
next major node version. In other words, if migrating away from testnet3 would
take you longer than all of 2025.
Although "I don't feel like it" isn't a great technical argument, it's still
useful to know what to expect and perhaps others can help.
- Sjors
[0] https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0094.mediawiki
[1] https://bitcoincore.org/en/lifecycle/#maintenance-period
[2] https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0325.mediawiki#specification
[3] https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/31975
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Bitcoin
Development Mailing List" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email
to bitcoindev+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit
https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/bitcoindev/7c28f8e9-d221-4633-8b71-53b4db07fa78%40schildbach.de.
