Republic Protocol Testnet has now been running for more than two months, with great success, and will continue to run indefinitely into the future. So far, we have approved hundreds of applications — with over two hundred applicants taking the opportunity to run Testnet Darknodes — and in the last two months over 14,000 orders have been matched. Check out some of our Testnet stats below:

We couldn’t be happier with what has been accomplished so far but with that said, it is important to discuss the future utility of the Republic Protocol Testnet, and how it will operate going forward. Testnet stability will remain paramount for the foreseeable future, so any of those who want to develop dark pools, tools and services, experiment with trading bots, or anything else can do so in a safe and highly functional testing environment. The protocol has unique use cases outside of RenEx and fostering a community and innovative testing ground will remain top priority after the Mainnet Beta launch.

The testnet also serves as a staging area for the team to test bug fixes, protocol upgrades and experiment with implementations so for that reason Republic Protocol will operate and maintain a majority of nodes in future Testnets.

Timeline

Over the coming weeks, we will close public participation for running Testnet Darknodes. The Republic Protocol Testnet will continue to be available to the public and will be operated by the Republic Protocol team as mentioned above.

Friday 31st August 2018

Applications for running Testnet Darknodes will close. From this point, no more applications for Testnet Darknodes will be accepted. However, the applications that have already been submitted will continue to be processed and approved over the upcoming week.

Friday 7th September 2018

Applications for running Testnet Darknodes will stop being processed. From this point forward, no more applications for Testnet Darknodes will be processed or approved. People that are already running Testnet Darknodes can continue to do so for the next week.

Friday 14th September 2018

Public participation for running Testnet Darknodes will end. Close partners and selected active community members will be offered the opportunity to continue to run Testnet Darknodes.

Alternative Testnets

It is not uncommon for decentralised networks to run multiple different Testnets to trial different features and governance (for example, Ethereum has Ropsten, Kovan, and Rinkeby). Anyone that is interested in running their own Testnet — in addition to the one that will be operated by the Republic Protocol team — should contact us on Telegram for guidelines and support.

Taking these steps will set the foundation for a stable testnet operation that is essential for future development and experimentation. Ultimately to allow us to continue to push the envelope for what’s possible with Republic Protocol, working towards our goal of becoming the premier decentralized platform for dark pool trading of cryptocurrencies and digital assets in a tokenized world.

Stay tuned for more updates as our mainnet beta launch approaches — much more to look forward to that we are excited to share with the community.

Onwards and upwards

— Taiyang Zhang, CEO, Republic Protocol