Overview
Ethereum’s largest public testnet, Holešky, is scheduled for retirement following the network’s upcoming Fusaka hard fork. After serving as the primary proving ground for critical protocol upgrades for more than two years, Holešky will be deprecated and its infrastructure and validator operators migrated to the newer Hoodi testnet.
Background and Purpose
Launched in September 2023, Holešky played a central role in validating the Dencun upgrade, stress-testing validator exit and bonding flows, and evaluating other consensus-layer enhancements. Frequent network pauses and “inactivity leaks” exposed limitations in validator client implementations, prompting migration planning.
Fusaka Fork Timeline
The Fusaka update, combining Fulu and Osaka improvements, targets November 2025 for mainnet activation. Key features include more efficient data availability for rollups, refined execution-layer concurrency, and optimised block propagation. Holešky will be decommissioned two weeks after Fusaka is finalized on mainnet.
Migration to Hoodi
Developed in March, Hoodi offers a fresh environment with no legacy state or exit queues. Validator operators will be guided to reinitialise keys and clients on Hoodi, ensuring continued support for EIP execution tests and future upgrade simulations. Sepolia remains the recommended network for dApp developers during the transition.
Impact on Stakeholders
Testnet maintenance teams will cease Holešky support, redirecting monitoring, tooling, and documentation efforts to Hoodi. Node providers and infrastructure services will deprecate Holešky endpoints. Validator clients have been notified of end-of-life dates to prevent automated restarts on deprecated networks.
Community Response
Developers and staking pool operators have welcomed the migration plan, noting smoother uptime and performance metrics on Hoodi. Several community-run monitoring dashboards have begun adding Hoodi support while archiving Holešky data for historical analysis.
Future Outlook
Following Fusaka and the consolidation of testnet environments, focus will shift to Glamsterdam and future EIPs slated for 2026. Hoodi is expected to handle successive protocol changes, enabling seamless developer and infrastructure collaboration ahead of mainnet rollouts.
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