Ethereum Team Launches New Testnet Hoodi to Validate Pectra Upgrade

On March 17, the Ethereum developers launched a new long-term test network called Hoodi, aimed at finalizing the verification of the Pectra upgrade.

The decision to establish this testnet was made on March 13 during the latest ACDE Call, following issues encountered while deploying a hard fork in Holesky.

The operation of the test network was restored approximately two weeks later. However, it does not allow for testing the validator exit functionality in Pectra.

The activation of the hard fork in Hoodi is scheduled for March 26. If the update successfully rolls out on the testnet, the deployment on the Ethereum mainnet will occur no sooner than 30 days later.

Developer Dmitry Gusakov cautioned before the launch of Hoodi that not all options are available within the testnet configuration. Additionally, users may experience issues with certain clients in the initial days.

It’s worth noting that the implementation of the Pectra hard fork in the Sepolia testnet on March 5 resulted in a failure in transaction processing. The problems were further complicated by interference from a malicious actor.