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From: Melvin Carvalho <melvincarvalho@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2025 19:58:37 +0100
Message-ID: <CAKaEYhKxxiQ+pkVGunCHgZs6+VrjmVsr6BSK7of5+K=jjc_W6A@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [bitcoindev] Unbreaking testnet4
To: Antoine Poinsot <darosior@protonmail.com>
Cc: Bitcoin Development Mailing List <bitcoindev@googlegroups.com>
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=C3=BAt 18. 3. 2025 v 22:24 odes=C3=ADlatel 'Antoine Poinsot' via Bitcoin D=
evelopment
Mailing List <bitcoindev@googlegroups.com> napsal:

> Hi,
>
> Testnet4 was rolled out a year ago to address the shortcomings of
> testnet3. One of those shortcomings was the difficulty reset creating
> havoc. [0] In spite of this a similar rule was adopted for testnet4. [1] =
As
> a result, testnet4 is similarly creating havoc. [2]
>
> The goal of testnet is to mimic the Bitcoin mainnet. This is why it is
> useful to have in addition to a more control testing environment such as
> Signet.
>
> The given rationale for a difficulty reset was to let developers
> occasionally mine blocks on their laptop. But you cannot have your cake a=
nd
> eat it too: either the network is permissionless (PoW) or you assign
> identities and privileges to some (Signet). By trying to do both at the
> same time testnet4 created a loophole for abuse. As a result it failed on
> both count: it neither mimics mainnet nor allows developers to mine activ=
e
> blocks on their laptop.
>
> I propose to fix this by removing the difficulty reset rule from testnet4
> through a flag day hard fork on 2026-01-01. I picked a date well in the
> future to minimize disruption. This leaves enough time for a patch to be
> reviewed, merged, included in the next major Bitcoin Core release,
> backported to previous releases and adopted by the infrastructure running
> on testnet4. That should be enough for a test network.
>

I just built a Taproot web wallet for Testnet4, designed for anyone who
wants to experiment with it. You can log in using either a hex private key
or Nostr. The wallet lets you send coins to an address or a Nostr npub,
receive coins from a faucet, and send an OP_RETURN.

https://testcoin.org/

There may still be some bugs, but hopefully, this gets more people playing
with Testnet4. If you have feature requests, feel free to mail me.


>
> Let me know what you think,
> Antoine
>
> [0]
> https://gnusha.org/pi/bitcoindev/CADL_X_eXjbRFROuJU0b336vPVy5Q2RJvhcx64NS=
NPH-3fDCUfw@mail.gmail.com
> [1]
> https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0094.mediawiki#rule-speci=
fication
> [2] https://fork.observer - pick the network on the top right corner
>
> --
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> To view this discussion visit
> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/bitcoindev/hU75DurC5XToqizyA-vOKmVtmzd3=
uZGDKOyXuE_ogE6eQ8tPCrvX__S08fG_nrW5CjH6IUx7EPrq8KwM5KFy9ltbFBJZQCHR2ThoimR=
bMqU%3D%40protonmail.com
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/bitcoindev/hU75DurC5XToqizyA-vOKmVtmzd=
3uZGDKOyXuE_ogE6eQ8tPCrvX__S08fG_nrW5CjH6IUx7EPrq8KwM5KFy9ltbFBJZQCHR2Thoim=
RbMqU%3D%40protonmail.com?utm_medium=3Demail&utm_source=3Dfooter>
> .
>

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<div dir=3D"ltr"><div dir=3D"ltr"><br></div><br><div class=3D"gmail_quote g=
mail_quote_container"><div dir=3D"ltr" class=3D"gmail_attr">=C3=BAt 18. 3. =
2025 v=C2=A022:24 odes=C3=ADlatel &#39;Antoine Poinsot&#39; via Bitcoin Dev=
elopment Mailing List &lt;<a href=3D"mailto:bitcoindev@googlegroups.com">bi=
tcoindev@googlegroups.com</a>&gt; napsal:<br></div><blockquote class=3D"gma=
il_quote" style=3D"margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,2=
04,204);padding-left:1ex"><div style=3D"font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-s=
ize:14px"><div style=3D"font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px"><div>H=
i,<br><br>Testnet4
 was  rolled out a year ago to address the shortcomings of testnet3. One
 of those shortcomings was the difficulty reset creating havoc. [0] In=20
spite of this a similar rule was adopted for testnet4. [1] As a result,=20
testnet4 is similarly creating havoc. [2]<br><br>The goal of testnet is=20
to mimic the Bitcoin mainnet. This is why it is useful to have in=20
addition to a more control testing environment such as Signet.<br><br>The
 given rationale for a difficulty reset was to let developers=20
occasionally mine blocks on their laptop. But you cannot have your cake=20
and eat it too: either the network is permissionless (PoW) or you assign
 identities and privileges to some (Signet). By trying to do both at the
 same time testnet4 created a loophole for abuse. As a result it failed=20
on both count: it neither mimics mainnet nor allows developers to mine=20
active blocks on their laptop.<br><br>I propose to fix this by removing=20
the difficulty reset rule from testnet4 through a flag day hard fork on=20
2026-01-01. I picked a date well in the future to minimize disruption.=20
This leaves enough time for a patch to be reviewed, merged, included in=20
the next major Bitcoin Core release, backported to previous releases and
 adopted by the infrastructure running on testnet4. That should be=20
enough for a test network.<br></div></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div=
><div>I just built a Taproot web wallet for Testnet4, designed for anyone w=
ho wants to experiment with it. You can log in using either a hex private k=
ey or Nostr. The wallet lets you send coins to an address or a Nostr npub, =
receive coins from a faucet, and send an OP_RETURN.<br><br><a href=3D"https=
://testcoin.org/">https://testcoin.org/</a><br><br>There may still be some =
bugs, but hopefully, this gets more people playing with Testnet4. If you ha=
ve feature requests, feel free to mail me.</div><div>=C2=A0<br></div><block=
quote class=3D"gmail_quote" style=3D"margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1=
px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div style=3D"font-family:Arial=
,sans-serif;font-size:14px"><div style=3D"font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font=
-size:14px"><div></div><div><br>Let me know what you think,<br>Antoine<br><=
br>[0] <span><a href=3D"https://gnusha.org/pi/bitcoindev/CADL_X_eXjbRFROuJU=
0b336vPVy5Q2RJvhcx64NSNPH-3fDCUfw@mail.gmail.com" rel=3D"noreferrer nofollo=
w noopener" target=3D"_blank">https://gnusha.org/pi/bitcoindev/CADL_X_eXjbR=
FROuJU0b336vPVy5Q2RJvhcx64NSNPH-3fDCUfw@mail.gmail.com</a></span><br>[1] <s=
pan><a href=3D"https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0094.mediawi=
ki#rule-specification" rel=3D"noreferrer nofollow noopener" target=3D"_blan=
k">https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0094.mediawiki#rule-spec=
ification</a></span><br>[2] <span><a href=3D"https://fork.observer/" rel=3D=
"noreferrer nofollow noopener" target=3D"_blank">https://fork.observer</a> =
- pick the network on the top right corner</span></div></div>
<div style=3D"font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px">
    <div>
       =20
            </div>
   =20
            <div>
       =20
            </div>
</div>
</div>

<p></p>

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CjH6IUx7EPrq8KwM5KFy9ltbFBJZQCHR2ThoimRbMqU%3D%40protonmail.com?utm_medium=
=3Demail&amp;utm_source=3Dfooter" target=3D"_blank">https://groups.google.c=
om/d/msgid/bitcoindev/hU75DurC5XToqizyA-vOKmVtmzd3uZGDKOyXuE_ogE6eQ8tPCrvX_=
_S08fG_nrW5CjH6IUx7EPrq8KwM5KFy9ltbFBJZQCHR2ThoimRbMqU%3D%40protonmail.com<=
/a>.<br>
</blockquote></div></div>

<p></p>

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