Ethereum is getting ready to retire its biggest testnet. The Foundation announced that Holešky will be closed about two weeks following the completion of the Fusaka upgrade on the network in mid-September, ending a two-year period focused on staking and validator activities. Developers anticipate launching Fusaka on mainnet in early November, making the sunset occur well before that timeframe.
In September 2023, Holešky became crucial for practicing significant changes, ranging from Dencun to recent Pectra trials, yet early-year inactivity led to a lengthy exit line and revealed maintenance challenges. To maintain clean protocol testing, the Foundation launched a new environment, Hoodi, in March. Hoodi currently accommodates Pectra and will prepare for future forks, such as Fusaka. For dapps and smart contracts, it is advised to utilize Sepolia as the preferred application testnet.
What’s next for Ethereum: Fusaka now, Glamsterdam next
Fusaka, an abbreviation for Fulu-Osaka, consolidates eleven Ethereum Improvement Proposals aimed at reducing the costs and increasing the speed of rollups by optimizing data-availability tasks across validators. The anticipated result is reduced node demands, increased decentralization, and improved L2 throughput as rollups submit data more effectively at a lower expense. Should Fusaka successfully transition to mainnet in November, it will pave the way for the next phase of the roadmap.
The upcoming show is Glamsterdam, slated for 2026. EIP-7782 examines the possibility of reducing block times to six seconds by separating validation from execution, allowing provers additional space to create zk-EVM proofs. Holešky’s sunset and Hoodi’s ascent indicate a crucial moment for Ethereum’s testing framework, as Fusaka and Glamsterdam advance scalability, user experience, and decentralization. For teams developing today, the directive is clear: transfer staking, client, and infrastructure processes to Hoodi, maintain contract testing on Sepolia, and monitor Fusaka preparedness for mainnet carefully during November deployments.