Agoric’s testnet. My experience.
Over the past 2 years, I have participated in many testnets, so I have something to compare and draw any conclusions. In my opinion, during the testnet process, you can easily understand the attitude of developers to the project. I’m not trying to compare projects with each other, because many of them are fundamentally different, I just want to note in which testnet I was comfortable working with the project team and with other validators. Among such projects in my experience were: Mina protocol, Nucypher, Near, Solana, Akash, and of course Agoric! You can view the information about the testnet on this page: https://validate.agoric.com
Here’s how the Agoric testnet differs from other projects for the better:
- Detailed instructions to understand the task, but not so much that it is performed by people who are completely unfamiliar with working in ubuntu and node’s validation. I often met in other testnet, where the most detailed instructions were given — people participated who did not understand what they were doing. I think this is too much, because one of the main tasks of the testnet is to choose validators for the mainnet, and such validators must be competent.
- The optimal duration of the testnet. Some projects run a testnet in 2 weeks, some for half a year, most of the time in which only “checking uptime” takes. Agoric divided the testnet into 5 phases, each lasting 1 week, and took a break in between. As a result, we get a testnet that is about 2–3 months long. During this time, you can identify people who use free VPS, the duration of which is 1 month :-)). And it will also be possible to perform all the necessary tasks for the other validators during this time.
- Variety of tasks. Tasks start from the simplest ones — install a node, make a tweet about it, etc., but there are also complex tasks — for example, building your own applications. That is, during the testnet, the points will be distributed according to the knowledge and abilities, and not equally to all those who simply “did not get in jail”. Also, during the first stage, I studied the work of Prometheus. I did not use it before, but used some other programs for tracking indicators, for example, netdata. However, now I have more options, thanks to this testnet.
In total, in less than 2 phases, I launched a validator, wrote a couple of articles, installed several monitoring programs, launched a sentry node, performed several network updates, including a sudden one, in the middle of the night :-D. And there are still 3 phases ahead, more challenging and interesting tasks. That’s what Agoric is — constantly achieving new goals and developing.
Website: https://agoric.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/agoric
Github: https://github.com/agoricDiscord: https://discord.com/invite/qDW8DRes4s
Medium: https://medium.com/agoric
Telegram: https://t.me/agoricsystems
