Bundlr launches its first testnet

Today is the day you’ve all been waiting for! We are launching our first testnet.

This is a major milestone in our project history. It means that we are one step closer to having a fully decentralized network that is run by the community.

Why are we launching a testnet?

Releasing testnets, in general, will help us perfect our future mainnet. The goal of our first testnet is to test how nodes interact with each other and if they come to consensus. We will also be testing smart contracts.

Ultimately we want to drive towards long-term decentralization, ensuring that when mainnet is launched, it is fully decentralized and trustless, meaning that the network is not run by Bundlr, but by the community.

It might take a few iterations of testnet to achieve this, however, we are committed to reaching this goal.

How does testnet work?

Anyone is welcome to join testnet. To learn more about how it works and how to get started, click here.

In order to join testnet, you must have a Twitter account. Once you verify your Twitter account, you will receive the test tokens you need to participate in testnet.

To ensure that testnet is not controlled by a small group of validators, we will allocate 2,500 test tokens per Twitter account via a faucet. There will be a total of 1 billion test tokens allowing for 400,000 unique Twitter accounts to join testnet.

This is to ensure that we have equally-weighted validators across the testnet. It will decrease the chances of one validator having significantly more tokens than everyone else and therefore controlling the testnet.

What will the network look like on testnet?

Bundlr is a Proof-of-Stake network that sits on top of Arweave. Approximately every 30 minutes, 10 validators are randomly chosen to run the network.

The validators ensure the transactions are moved from Bundlr’s network onto Arweave within 400 blocks, which is 800 minutes.

Once a transaction is posted to Bundlr and validated, it will receive 3 signatures from validators. The signatures confirm that the transaction will be moved from Bundlr onto Arweave.

What’s next for Bundlr?

Our team will monitor this testnet and capture feedback from the community that will be incorporated in an improved testnet II.

This cycle will continue until we eventually launch an incentivized testnet, followed by the launch of our mainnet.

And finally, thank you!

A huge thank you to our team, partners, and community. We couldn’t have done it without your endless support and encouragement. This is just the beginning for us, and we’re excited to be one step closer to having a fully decentralized, autonomous network.

To learn more about Bundlr and its technology, check out Bundlr’s documentation. For more information, feel free to reach out on Twitter, Discord, or email caylin@bundlr.network