Holesky, the Ethereum testnet, regained finality after nearly two weeks of instability.
Network disruption has slowed down testing of expected Pectra upgrades, delaying future progress on hard forks.
However, with Holesky currently operational, Ethpandaops, a group of Etherium developers, has confirmed that Validator can resume Pectra testing on the testnet.
The developers also recommended that Solo Stakers use Ephemery Testnet as an alternative environment for independent testing.
Holesky’s Test Net
On March 10, Ethpandaops confirmed that Holesky was confirmed with the Epoch 119090. This milestone was reached after over two-thirds of Validators participated and stabilized the network.
Holesky’s confusion began on February 24th, when it failed to finalize during the Pectra test.
Tim Beiko, the protocol support lead for the Ethereum Foundation, linked the issue to running clients such as Geth using the wrong deposit contract address. This misconception triggered a bug in the execution layer (EL), causing chain splitting, and network instability.
The first attempt to resolve the issue failed due to insufficient participation of the validator. However, as finality is now restored, all test transactions in Holesky are permanent and irreversible.
Ethpandaops noted that Holesky has been stable since its recovery and is a final ongoing continuity. Validator participation has been low in some eras as users move from temporary fixes to stable setups. Nevertheless, the network is functional and ready for further testing.
Meanwhile, the developers also pointed out that the exit queue has a balance of nearly 1 million people, with a slashed validator and the required balance. However, around 700,000 are still active and balances are expected to rise as network obligations continue to meet.
Other issues
Holesky recovery occurs as Ethereum developers address another issue with Sepolia, another test network.
Last week, Beiko reported that the custom deposit contract issue was disrupting certain execution layer clients in Sepolia, affecting transactions within the block.
Despite these challenges, Ethereum developers are confident that Pectra will be available on schedule for April.
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