The objective is to solve the availability and reliability problems on existing test networks
A team of developers use the nodes ability to demonstrate their identity in the network. They implemented a new protocol to validate blocks in the Ethereum chain. The new test network considers validators’ reputation and its name is Görli Testnet, an idea which was proposed during the ETHBerlin hackathon, last September.
Ethereum test networks have been characterized by having several types of problems, most developments have their pros and cons. Lane McShardface, referring to the work of the Gorli team in the ETHBerlin hackathon, talked about this situation. There, he mentioned that the testnet scenario is very messy, and that could be the reason or the cause of problems. He specifically mentioned Ropsten, which is often attacked and “has been continuously plagued by stability problems”.
The information about the new Ethereum network was published on November 19th on the ETHnews portal. It explained the project, which is a universal network for Ethereum developers, based on an authority test algorithm (PoA). It has been called the new consensus method. The network is currently in its pre-tesnet phase and there are still errors to be solved, so “it could fail at any time”.
Afri Schoedon, Parity’s client launch Director for Ethereum, affirms the motivation to work in this plan is to overcome the problem of a widely usable network non-existence, which also be robust enough to guarantee constant availability and high reliability.
The developer, who worked at the ETHBerlin hackathon together with a ChainSafe System team, talked about the experiences with different Ethereum test networks, such as Olimpyc, Morden, Ropsten, Kovan and Rinkeby. He added that Olimpyc, Ropsten and Morden have been abandoned because of their limitations, like stability problems. For those reasons, Schoedon believes that Görli could be the next-generation public test network of Etereum.
This platform could currently be used with Geth clients and the team’s plans include consolidating the implementation in other Ethereum clients. They also hope to launch two PoA test networks for Ethereum clients, in order to cover a broad spectrum of experimentation with PoA, a model that is not based on the number of cryptoactives, but in the ability of a given node guarantee its identity on the network.
“Gorli is the first authority test network that works on different clients written in different languages by different developers. Therefore, every problem we discover helps to improve the client’s engines and the Clique POA protocol”, Afri Schoedon said.
The expert gave more information about Görli’s progress on his social networks, where he detailed that the network is not yet in its testing phase, but in pre-tesnet. He highlighted that the problems are “those that help make improvements”. Schoedon’s followers on Twitter commented their opinions and left their questions about the topic that raised all the attention in just a few minutes.
Although the problems that should be solved, it remains to be seen the possible advances on the network and also in the way in which the team will try to solve the faults.
By María Rodríguez
