Ethereum Launches Hoodi Testnet for Pectra Upgrade After Previous Delays

The Ethereum Foundation has recently published findings indicating that the activation of the Pectra testnet has revealed several issues with client configurations related to the deposit contract. The Sepolia network has successfully recovered and returned to full functionality, while the Holesky network experienced significant non-activeness leaks during recovery. Despite Holesky being finalized, the withdrawal of validators is expected to take up to a year, complicating the validator exit process.

To address these challenges, a new testnet named Hoodi has been introduced. This network is designed for robust validator testing and is scheduled to activate with the Pectra upgrade during the 2048th epoch, specifically on March 26, 2025, at 07:37:12 UTC. Staking operators and infrastructure providers are encouraged to adopt Hoodi for future validator testing. The Holesky testnet will remain operational until September 2025, allowing users to continue exploring other available Pectra features.

The Ethereum core development team launched the third testnet, Hoodi, for the Pectra upgrade on March 17. This follows the problematic launches of the previous testnets, Holesky and Sepolia, in February. The Hoodi testnet is designed to allow developers to better prepare for the Pectra upgrade, which is considered the biggest Ethereum update since 'The Merge.' The testnet will activate Pectra upgrades 10 days following its launch on March 26, as accepted during the Ethereum All Core Dev Call on March 13.

The Hoodi testnet has a short-term focus on testing validator exits. If successful, and without major bugs that affected the first two testnets, the Pectra upgrade can be launched on the mainnet 30 days following the activation of Pectra on Hoodi or on April 25. Ethereum developers are looking forward to testing Pectra on Hoodi and will use these test updates to ensure that bugs are fixed before the Pectra upgrade goes live. This aims to ensure that all major bugs are fixed so as not to disrupt the main Ethereum blockchain once Pectra is updated to the main blockchain.

Despite the challenges that the Pectra upgrade has faced, investors and developers remain convinced that the Pectra upgrade, once launched, will be a success for the network. The Pectra upgrade aims to solve long-standing challenges on the Ethereum blockchain, such as high transaction fees, complexity in staking for new users, and the maximum ETH lock-up for validators. The upgrade will make the blockchain faster, more scalable, and easier to use for blockchain users, developers, and validators. It will also include scaling proposals to double the blob count for data availability from three to six.

The Pectra upgrade was initially slated to launch on the mainnet in late 2024 or early 2025, but the efforts have been pushed back. This is mainly due to repeated delays due to client readiness issues and synchronization bugs in the first two Ethereum testnets, Holesky and Sepolia. On March 10, Holesky's testnet achieved finality, where all transactions on Holesky are now immutable and irreversible after a two-week delay due to a configuration bug in the client software, not the Pectra upgrade itself. The upgrade launched on Sepolia on March 5, but hours later, a bug was discovered (and solved) whereby Ethereum developers were receiving error messages on their geth nodes and noticed empty blocks being mined.

The Hoodi testnet aims to avoid the failures of its predecessors by looking to 'mimic' the Ethereum mainnet as closely as possible. The testnet will launch a validator set and stake distribution that is similar to the Ethereum mainnet, meaning at least 20 million test ETH staked distributed across 11 client teams and five staking operators. This approach is expected to provide a more realistic testing environment, helping to identify and resolve any potential issues before the upgrade is implemented on the mainnet.