The Pectra testnet activation revealed issues in clients with deposit contract configurations changes on Ethereum testnets. While Sepolia’s recovery was straightforward and the network has since fully recovered, Holesky experienced extensive inactivity leaks as part of its recovery mechanism.
The Holesky network has since then finalized, but the exited validators would take approximately one year to fully be removed from the validator set (¹). While stakers can test deposits, consolidations and all other Pectra features, the size of the exit queue prevents Holesky from being used to test the full validator lifecycle within a reasonable timeframe.
To address this, a new testnet has been launched: Hoodi. It will activate the Pectra network upgrade at epoch 2048 (Wed. March 26, 2025 07:37:12 UTC).
Moving forward, staking operators and infrastructure providers should use Hoodi for validator testing. To allow time for the migration, the Holesky testnet will be supported until September 2025. Aside from validator exits, all other Pectra features can be tested on Holesky.
Summary of testnets and their purpose
- Holesky: Validators and Staking providers (Expected end of life 30th September, 2025). Client developers will also use Holesky to test gas limit increases and other protocol stress tests.
- Sepolia: Application and tooling devs (Expected end of life 30th September, 2026)
- Hoodi: Validators and Staking providers (Expected end of life 30th September, 2028)
- Planned Sepolia replacement: Expected launch date of March 2026
¹: For a deeper dive into how the Beacon chain exit queue works, see https://hackmd.io/@mikeneuder/eli5-ethereum-validator-exits