What previously announced, the Ropsten network has been deprecated and will be shut down in the coming weeks. In recent months, infrastructure providers have gradually stopped supporting the network, and validator engagement rates have steadily declined.
The vast majority of the remaining validation nodes will be shut down during the period December 15-31, 2022. After this, Ropsten will no longer be supported by customer, test, or infrastructure teams.
As a reminder, the next testnet to go offline is Rinkeby. The network will be active until mid-2023 to give users and application developers the opportunity to migrate to Goerli or Sepolia. That being said, Rinkeby is not compatible with The Merge, nor will it support future network updates. It is no longer a function-equivalent replica of the Ethereum mainnet.
The deprecations of Merge and legacy testnet have provided an opportunity for the Ethereum community to reconsider its broader approach to testing networks. Proposals for specific purpose networks for stakeholders vs. Ethereum Wizards and on community calls. If you have strong opinions about the future of Ethereum testnets, now is the time to express them!
Cover image by Michael Widell
