As previously announced, the Ropsten network will be decommissioned and shut down in the coming weeks. Over the past few months, infrastructure he providers have gradually stopped supporting the network, and validator participation rates have steadily declined.
Most of the remaining validator nodes will be shut down during the period from December 15th to 31st, 2022. After this, Ropsten will no longer be supported by any client, test, or infrastructure teams.
As a reminder, the next testnet to be retired is Rinkeby. The network will operate until mid-2023, offering users and application developers an opportunity to migrate to his Goerli or Sepolia. That being said, Rinkeby does not support The Merge, nor will it support future network upgrades. It is no longer a functionally equivalent replica of Ethereum mainnet.
The deprecation of Merge and the traditional testnet provided an opportunity for the Ethereum community to rethink its broader approach to testing the network. Proposals for purpose-built networks for stakers vs. developers, end-of-life criteria for testnets, etc. are being discussed. ethereum magicians and on community calls. If you have strong opinions about the future of the Ethereum testnet, now is the time to speak up.
cover image Michael Widell
