The leading blockchain ecosystem, Ethereum, has just announced the development of a third testnet named Hoodi for the Pectra update, following errors encountered on the Holesky and Sepolia testnets. This latest update is expected to pave the way for Ethereum to successfully launch the Pectra Update on the mainnet before May 2025, bringing a positive signal to Ethereum after a challenging period.
Ethereum Introduced The Third Testnet Hoodi
“A new testnet, Hooli, is going live Monday to wrap up Pectra testing,” said Tim Beiko, member of the Ethereum’s developer team. During the regular meeting on March 13, 2025, the Ethereum development team agreed to launch a dedicated testnet for the Pectra upgrade trials, named Hoodi.
ACDE Recap
A new testnet, Hoodi, is going live Monday to wrap up Pectra testing, if you need to test validator exits, be on the lookout for it! Everything else can be tested on Sepolia & Holesky.
Pectra will be scheduled 30+ days after Hoodi forks successfully, pending infra… pic.twitter.com/FK05GmtPnk
— timbeiko.eth (@TimBeiko) March 13, 2025
Pectra upgrade aimed to launch on Ethereum’s Holesky testnet by late February and Sepolia in early March. And as the initial schedule, the Ethereum developer team has targeted a mainnet rollout this month. However, the testing process on Holesky did not go smoothly, failing to finalize transactions for days. Sepolia faced similar buggy issues, forcing the Ethereum team to suspend all tests last week to investigate.
As a result, the network’s core developer will launch a new testnet called Hoodi on March 17 to resume the validation process for Pectra, starting from March 26. If everything proceeds smoothly this time, Pectra will be deployed on the Ethereum mainnet approximately 30 days later—potentially as early as the end of April. However, delays into May cannot be ruled out.
Christine Kim (Galaxy Digital) stated that Hoodi will simulate the Ethereum mainnet with 20 million test ETH, operated by 11 client teams and 5 staking entities conducting tests. Some aspects of Pectra will still be tested on Sepolia and Holesky for further optimization.
This delay comes at a time when Ethereum is facing increasing competition from next-generation Layer 1 blockchains. Paradigm has urged faster updates to maintain Ethereum’s competitive edge. Then, the All Core Devs meeting on February 13 agreed to accelerate the upgrade process. However, the postponement of Pectra has impacted investor confidence, especially as ETH’s performance has already been struggling in recent times.
About Pectra Update
The Pectra upgrade is a significant update to the Ethereum blockchain, combining two previously separate upgrades: Prague (focused on the execution layer) and Electra (focused on the consensus layer). It is one of the two most important upgrades from the Ethereum ecosystem, with Dencun, in 2024. The Pectra upgrade enhances Ethereum’s scalability, security, and usability with features like account abstraction (EIP-7702), increased validator staking limits (EIP-7251), and faster staking processes (EIP-6110, EIP-7002).
The continuous issues with Pectra’s upgrade testnet are a blow to Ethereum, as the world’s second-largest blockchain network has been grappling with increasing instability over the past six months. Challenges in maintaining competitiveness against other Layer 1 blockchains and the decline in ETH’s price ETH have led to a growing loss of confidence within the community, resulting in frustration and conflicts with the project’s leadership team.
Learn more: What Is Ethereum and How Does It Work?
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