The Andes Testnet, Dill’s public testnet, has reached several significant milestones. As we conclude this phase, we’re excited to share some impressive achievements and insights with the Dill community and our ecosystem partners.
We are now one step closer to launching the Dill incentivized testnet and the mainnet.
Public Testnet Participation
The Andes Public Testnet attracted over 75,000 unique users all over the world eager to participate. Due to the gradual scaling of our network and infrastructure, only a small percentage around 2% of applicants were selected. This careful selection process ensured we could focus on improving our core network codebase and tooling.
Full and Light Validator Nodes
Over the two-month Andes testnet period, 1,511 validators have been actively securing the network, with 640 full validator nodes and the rest being light validator nodes. Dill’s innovative light validator technology allows these light validator nodes to participate in consensus voting and perform Data Availability Sampling (DAS) on erasure-code encoded blob data. As a result, light validators also earn staking rewards. Full validators, on the other hand, handle block production and more heavylifting tasks.
This dual-validator system lowers both technical and financial barriers, allowing more community members and solo stakers to join the network. We’ve also continued refining our tools, making it possible for anyone to set up a node in under 5 minutes. In fact, running a node on a VPS can cost as little as $6 per month or even less with some smaller cloud computing providers.
This confirms our belief that with the right tools, low entry barriers, and the proper incentive model, solo stakers are enthusiastic about joining the network, further decentralizing and increasing the censorship resistance of Dill network.
Blocks, Transactions, and Blob Data
During the Andes testnet, 17,093 blocks were produced, containing 263,549 transactions and generating 63.863 GB of blob data. We stress-tested the network with 512 blobs in a single block, achieving a throughput of over 10MB/s.
We also verified that both data sharding and network subnets functioned as expected during these stress tests. Block production, data verification, and block propagation all performed well without any degradation in service during the test and we are confident there is still room for further optimization.
This demonstrates Dill remains competitive in offering scalability and fast finality data availability solutions, making it an ideal platform for building other chains.
What’s Next
The successful conclusion of the Andes public testnet marks just the beginning. It further demonstrates our readiness for the next phase of code development, community growth, and ecosystem expansion.
As we complete the final preparations for the next phase, the incentivized testnet will be launching soon. We invite all the community and builders to join us on the Dill’s incentized testnet. Follow us on Twitter/X and Discord to keep up to date with the latest developments and updates.
