History of the TestNet(s)?

[simondlr]

Hi guys.

I'm doing some research on the history of the TestNet(s) for a book I'm writing. We are now on TestNet3.

Can someone provide some clarity on why the TestNet is on version 3, and what changed during each one?

As far as I know (what I could find), one of changes was to refactor the difficulty, so that when someone comes along and dumps a lot of mining power (to test them), they don't upset the difficulty for long periods, increasing block confirmation time (due to unreasonable high difficulty). According to the Bitcoin wiki, it also mentions that TestNet2 was killed off because people started trading it? Is that correct? https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Testnet

Would appreciate some information.

Thanks.

[deepceleron]

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