The activation of the Pectra network upgrade on testnets exposed critical issues in client deposit contract configurations. While Sepolia quickly recovered from these challenges, Holesky faced extensive inactivity leaks as part of its recovery process.

Although Holesky has since finalized, the exit queue issue remains, requiring nearly a year for exited validators to be fully removed. A configuration issue affected three majority clients on the network, preventing them from properly tracking deposit contract addresses. This misconfiguration led to inconsistencies in deposit tracking, causing a breakdown in consensus among Holesky clients.

A new testnet, Hoodi, has been launched to help wrap up Pectra testing.

Stakers, this is your new testing ground ? Pectra will activate on it next Wednesday.

Holesky will be maintained until September. It still works to test everything, except for validator exits ? https://t.co/4ZY366CEBa pic.twitter.com/MKi5cCY2NjMarch 19, 2025

In response to challenges faced by previous testnets, Ethereum launched the Hoodi testnet to provide a stable, mainnet-like environment for testing the upcoming Pectra upgrade, validator exits, and staking operations. It will activate the Pectra upgrade at epoch 2048 on Wednesday, March 26, 2025, at 07:37:12 UTC. Moving forward, stakers, infrastructure providers, and validator testers should use Hoodi instead of Holesky.

While Hoodi focuses on staking and protocol-level testing, developers working on dApps and Ethereum Virtual Machine functionalities are advised to use the Sepolia testnet. Holesky remains functional for testing deposits, consolidations, and other Pectra features.

However, given the extended validator exit queue, Holesky cannot be used to test the full validator lifecycle within a reasonable timeframe. To facilitate a smooth transition, Holesky will continue to be supported until September 2025.

With the launch of Hoodi, Ethereum’s testnet ecosystem is evolving to better support staking and validator testing. Stakers, infrastructure providers, and developers should transition to Hoodi for a more stable and efficient testing experience.

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