The Kintsugi testnet is the first Proof-of-Stake public testnet created by the blockchain network’s creators.
The previously released testnets were solely open to developers, however the most recent testnet allows anyone to use the new environment.
The Ethereum foundation announced the launch of the Kintsugi public testnet on December 20 in a blog post.
Kintsugi is the first public testnet on the network to use proof-of-stake (PoS). It’s a crucial step toward the network’s long-awaited switch from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism.
This public testnet is called after the age-old Japanese skill of mending broken pottery with gold, which is most likely a subtle hint to what the testnet will do for the network.
“Although client development and UX continue to be refined, we encourage the community to start using Kintsugi to familiarize themselves with Ethereum in a post-merge context. For application developers, as previously explained, not much will change. Tooling, which only interacts with either the consensus or execution layer, is also largely unaffected. Infrastructure which depends on both layers is most likely to need to adapt to support The Merge.”
The blog post explained
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Kintsugi is a “longer-lived public testnet” where anyone can experiment with Ethereum in the same way that the network will operate after the switchover.
This could entail putting niche decentralized finance (DeFi) tools to the test, such as those that use smart contracts to provide financial services, as well as more technical network usage.
The Ethereum network’s long-awaited upgrade intends to address the network’s scalability issues, which has sparked a surge in interest in Layer-2 scaling solutions.
Many users have moved to alternative Layer-1 blockchains due to the network’s scalability issues and the resulting unsustainable fees.
Ethereum 2.0, also known as ETH2 or “Serenity,” is an upgrade to the Ethereum blockchain. The upgrade intends to improve the Ethereum network’s speed, efficiency, and scalability so that it can handle more transactions and alleviate congestion.