Thomas Daniels
Ethereum developers are preparing to phase out Holesky, the network’s largest testnet, in favor of a new trial environment called Hoodi.
In a blog post published on March 19, the Ethereum Foundation (EF) confirmed that Holesky would be discontinued following significant technical failures during last month’s Pectra upgrade testing. The issues rendered the validator set inoperable for weeks, leading developers to seek a more stable alternative.
Although engineers implemented a fix in March, persistent congestion on Holesky made it impractical for comprehensive validator lifecycle testing. While validators can still test deposits, consolidations, and other Pectra-related features, the long exit queue—estimated to take nearly a year to clear—prevents the testnet from functioning effectively.
As a replacement, Ethereum’s core developers will introduce Hoodi, a new testnet designed to finalize Pectra testing before its mainnet deployment. EF DevOps engineer Paritosh Jayanthi and core coordinator Tim Beiko confirmed that the final Pectra trial on Hoodi is scheduled for March 26. If successful, the upgrade could be implemented on Ethereum’s main chain as early as April 25.
