As part of our tiered release process, we will soon be beginning the final phase prior to our Frontier release. So far our ongoing Proof-of-Concept IX testnet has been running smoothly for around a month with dozens of nodes around the world, well over 200,000 blocks and including clients on several platforms and three different clean-room implementations. However, that’s not enough of a test for us.

In a phase of the PoC-IX testnet called “Olympic”, the usage of this network will be incentivised through a collection of prizes (in ether, naturally!). We will give advice on what usage should maximise your chances of winning ether, though the precise judgement metrics will be withheld until prize time. Suffice it to say, those in the employ of Ethereum or its subsidiaries will not be eligible.

The sorts of usage we will be awarding include:

mining

spending gas (in a variety of ways)

interesting contracts (variety of opcodes, length of execution time)