Have you ever looked at the Bitcoin testnet?

[European Central Bank]

I was reading something on reddit that said they've had three testnets now as people kept trying to monetize it.  It occurred to me that I'm barely aware of the testnet and have never checked it out.

Is this something that people here do regularly? Do you load up on testnet coins and fantasize about then being real?  Do you learn stuff from it?

[longbob72]

Testnet are for testing and unless you're a developer or someone who really wants to learn through practice you don't need to use it.
But what do you mean by trying to monetize it? As in using it to learn how to create an altcoin or something?

[Velkro]

Testnet are for testing and unless you're a developer or someone who really wants to learn through practice you don't need to use it.

Agree, unless u want to develope something around Bitcoin u shouldn't look at it at all
It has marginal use cases for expert users.

[European Central Bank]

. https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Testnet

I guess it was an attempt to turn it directly into some sort of alt,  not experiment with creating one. According the above they shut down previous versions because of that.

[Angell]

I was reading something on reddit that said they've had three testnets now as people kept trying to monetize it.  It occurred to me that I'm barely aware of the testnet and have never checked it out.

Is this something that people here do regularly? Do you load up on testnet coins and fantasize about then being real?  Do you learn stuff from it?

If you have to ask this kind of question better leave it alone. It's just unnecessary.

[Meuh6879]

they've had three testnets now as people kept trying to monetize it.

They only want test your bitcoin miner ... because in the real network, they can't hearn bitcoins at all.

[Nimbulan]

I was reading something on reddit that said they've had three testnets now as people kept trying to monetize it.  It occurred to me that I'm barely aware of the testnet and have never checked it out.

Is this something that people here do regularly? Do you load up on testnet coins and fantasize about then being real?  Do you learn stuff from it?

that fantasize part was hilarious :DD what is the point to actually have it? its not worth anything

[Angell]

I was reading something on reddit that said they've had three testnets now as people kept trying to monetize it.  It occurred to me that I'm barely aware of the testnet and have never checked it out.

Is this something that people here do regularly? Do you load up on testnet coins and fantasize about then being real?  Do you learn stuff from it?

that fantasize part was hilarious :DD what is the point to actually have it? its not worth anything

Haha yeah, people don't get it obviously.

[ranochigo]

Testnet is another network that has experimental features that can be included into Bitcoin. Testnet coins are not intended to be traded or be worth anything. They can easily be obtained through faucets etc. If people start to mine and control majority of the coin and try to sell them, the developers won't be able to test out their applications. Testnet is quite similar to Bitcoin and would allow users to learn about Bitcoin and developers to use it without risk losing anything.

[~Bitcoin~]

. https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Testnet

I guess it was an attempt to turn it directly into some sort of alt,  not experiment with creating one. According the above they shut down previous versions because of that.

Actually testnet can be called as clone of bitcoin but without value/price and also have similar features like bitcoin but it keep getting forked several times for testing. For a developer who like to work on bitcoin related developments, testnet is playing ground.

[U2]

When people start using testnet coins as currency the developers will just fork it again. It's just not meant to have any value. It's common courtesy to send testnet coins back to the faucet you got them from so other people can run tests with them in the future.

[pooya87]

this has happened a long time ago when people started to sell testnet coins for money like any other altcoin , and it was stopped once and for all, why are you making a fuss about it

[Kakmakr]

. https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Testnet

I guess it was an attempt to turn it directly into some sort of alt,  not experiment with creating one. According the above they shut down previous versions because of that.

Actually testnet can be called as clone of bitcoin but without value/price and also have similar features like bitcoin but it keep getting forked several times for testing. For a developer who like to work on bitcoin related developments, testnet is playing ground.

Just on a much smaller scale, and without the risks involved that a mistake would bring down a Billion dollar technology. One of the down sides to this, is that the real world impact cannot be tested in a live environment to see for example what different stress tests will have on the current network, without users experiencing negative affects.

People < possibly competitors or Big blockers  > are doing it now on the live network, at huge cost but has not managed to bring the network down. It would have been better, if this network had some Alt coin with lower value and higher load, to test what the impact would have been in a live environment, without bringing the whole house of cards down.

[Pursuer]

I was reading something on reddit that said they've had three testnets now as people kept trying to monetize it.  It occurred to me that I'm barely aware of the testnet and have never checked it out.

Is this something that people here do regularly? Do you load up on testnet coins and fantasize about then being real?  Do you learn stuff from it?

fantasize about testnet coins that was funny.

but in all seriousness, testnet is only for testing, the name should be obvious and it is only for developers. and I was planning on doing some tests on testnet with some coins to learn more about bitcoin and not risk but I have not yet found the time to do so.

[European Central Bank]

they've had three testnets now as people kept trying to monetize it.

They only want test your bitcoin miner ... because in the real network, they can't hearn bitcoins at all.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/5608u0/lightningdev_blockstream_successfully_tests/d8f7p4l

why are some people on this thread being mysterious and defensive about the testnet? evidently you guys are secretly selling it off and not telling us.

[countryfree]

I didn't know there was such a thing as a testnet. With me not a developer, I don't need it. I tried and tested the blockchain with real BTC, and I've bought BTC with real money.

[achow101]

Testnet has also been going through some really crazy stuff recently, to the point that it may not actually represent the mainnet as it is supposed to.

IIRC Bitcoin Classic supporters managed to activate their fork on testnet and trigger their hard fork, but it seems that they are still mining less than 1 Mb blocks. Every time I open up Bitcoin Core on testnet, I get a warning about a new rule (that hard fork rule) being active since they signalled it with versionbit 28.

Segregated Witness is also active on testnet and has been for a while. A lot of really weird scripts and such have been created on testnet that actually makes testing edge cases on wallets really easy to do.

Also, a week or so ago, someone put a lot of hash power on testnet and was mining blocks at sub-minute intervals.

[Felimon]

Testnet are for testing and unless you're a developer or someone who really wants to learn through practice you don't need to use it.
But what do you mean by trying to monetize it? As in using it to learn how to create an altcoin or something?

How much skill do you need in order to use this?  I hear all this talk about being a developer and I am not sure what that exactly entails.  I am looking to learn more.

[achow101]

Testnet are for testing and unless you're a developer or someone who really wants to learn through practice you don't need to use it.
But what do you mean by trying to monetize it? As in using it to learn how to create an altcoin or something?

How much skill do you need in order to use this?  I hear all this talk about being a developer and I am not sure what that exactly entails.  I am looking to learn more.

Anyone can use testnet and you use it in exactly the same way you use mainnet. Just start Bitcoin Core with the -testnet option or, if you installed Core 0.13.0, use the provided testnet shortcut.

Why would you want to use testnet though if you aren't a developer?

[jonahmarieaton101]

I was reading something on reddit that said they've had three testnets now as people kept trying to monetize it.  It occurred to me that I'm barely aware of the testnet and have never checked it out.

Is this something that people here do regularly? Do you load up on testnet coins and fantasize about then being real?  Do you learn stuff from it?

that fantasize part was hilarious :DD what is the point to actually have it? its not worth anything

Haha yeah, people don't get it obviously.

It doesn't make sense at all. haha its not really valuable