Ethereum developers launch new testnet, Hoodi, to test 'Pectra' upgrade

Pectra will go live on Hoodi on March 26, and if all goes well, the long-awaited upgrade will proceed to Etheruem's mainnet roughly 30 days later

Ethereum core developers launched a new test network on Monday that will be used to carry out the blockchain’s upcoming ‘Pectra’ upgrade, following earlier setbacks in testing the upgrade on other testnets.

The testnet, named Hoodi, will see Pectra go live on March 26, and if all goes well, the long-awaited upgrade will then proceed to Etheruem’s mainnet roughly 30 days later, according to the network’s core developers.

Hoodi was created following faulty Pectra tests on Ethereum’s other testnets, Holesky and Sepolia, which failed to finalize properly due to problems with how they were configured.

Test networks like Holesky, Sepolia, and now Hoodi are designed to mimic the main Ethereum network — allowing developers the opportunity to test out code changes or major upgrades like Pectra in a low-stakes environment before deploying them to the mainnet.

Originally, the Pectra upgrade would have been activated on Ethereum following those two earlier tests. But because they didn't go smoothly, developers decided to build Hoodi to test the ambitious Pectra upgrade one more time, although the testnet can also be used for future tests.

Hoodi is designed to have the same number of validators as Ethereum’s mainnet, which Jayanthi argued would make it the testnet for Ethereum staking pools and node operators to test their infrastructure.

Both Holesky and Sepolia were built for different purposes: Holesky has a bigger validator set than Ethereum’s mainnet, which is supposed to help test out scalability problems, while Sepolia is a closed network just for developers, meant for testing out applications.

Pectra contains a series of upgrades designed to make Ethereum more user-friendly and efficient for developers and end-users. One of the biggest changes includes adding "smart contract" capabilities that could give wallets new features, like the ability to pay gas fees in cryptocurrencies other than ether (ETH).