Hello. In this post, we will tell you about the difference between testnet and mainnet.

What is a testnet?

Testnet is an alternative blockchain of bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies with its own blockchain), which is used for testing. There are also coins in the testnet, but they are not taken into account in the general issue, differ from real coins and have no value. This allows application developers or testers to experiment without using real BTC and without worrying about core network security.

There are three generations of test networks in bitcoin:

Testnet2 was the first reset of the test network with a different genesis block because people started trading coins from the test network for real money.

Testnet3 is the current test network. It was launched with version 0.7, there was also a third genesis block and a new rule to avoid “too high complexity” because otherwise the transactions took too much time and checking the problem or a new solution was very expensive.

In 2015, SegNet deployed to check out the Segregated Witness offer from Peter Wulle.

Own test network

The deployment of a test network (or private) of the Ethereum blockchain is most in demand. This is done using Geth. This is the Ethereum CLI client (command-line client) running on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Geth is widely used to interact with Ethereum networks.

Ethereum software allows the user to create a “private” or “test network” that is separate from the core. This is useful for testing distributed applications built on Ethereum without having to show applications or trial versions on a real network using real air. To do this, you need:

Custom Genesis File,

Custom data directory,

Network user-id,

(Recommended) Disable node detection.

What is a mainnet?

Despite the fact that the prospects of a cryptocurrency are still difficult to predict, there are several key components to determining the success of a project. One of the main factors is the underlying technology. Although investors do not have to be aware of the technical details of the project, it is still important to see progress in this area. If on the testnet you can show a kind of working prototype, then the mainnet is a clean one. The term refers to the main network, that is, people work there, mining takes place, real spending, transfers and so on.

The main network is updated after thorough testing, so as not to violate the security of the product.