Finalis testnet-1: BFT finality and confidential transactions from genesisAnnouncing the first public testnet of Finalis.
Finalis is a UTXO blockchain where blocks are final once a quorum of the validator committee signs them. There are no reorgs and no waiting for confirmations: a transaction in a finalized block cannot be reversed.
Amounts can be hidden. A confidential output carries a Pedersen commitment instead of a value, with a range proof that it is not negative. Validators check that inputs and outputs balance without learning the amounts. This is on from the first block, not added later. The cryptography is secp256k1-zkp, the same library used by Elements and Liquid.
Some properties:
- Finality is deterministic. A block is either finalized or it isn't.
- Blocks every 3 minutes.
- Every signature commits to the network and genesis, so a transaction signed for testnet is invalid on mainnet and the reverse.
- Validators bond coins to join. Committees are chosen per epoch (32 blocks) from bonded validators, deterministically from finalized history.
- Supply is capped at 7 million.
The testnet uses mainnet's consensus and economic rules, so it is a real rehearsal. Testnet coins have no value. Addresses start with tsc1.
LaunchGenesis time: 2026-10-19 09:00 UTC
Genesis hash: 5cabf22be344bd39a37a3a434e7a00dfa2caaba8f148de88cdcef706a103f7a0
To be clear about where it starts: testnet-1 begins with a single bootstrap validator. Until more validators are active, the chain has no fault tolerance. If that node stops, the chain stops. Four independent validators is the first size that survives a failure. That is the point of this testnet: we need people to run nodes and join.
Running a nodeLinux:
git clone https://github.com/FinalisCore/finalis-core.git
cd finalis-core
FINALIS_NETWORK=testnet SERVICE_NAME=finalis-testnet ./scripts/start.sh
The script installs dependencies, builds, and starts the node as a service. It connects to the seeds by itself. If you can, open TCP port 19540 so other nodes can connect to you. A node with no open ports still syncs, but it doesn't help the network as much.
Instructions for Windows, firewalls, cloud providers and home routers are in the testnet guide:
https://github.com/FinalisCore/finalis-core/blob/main/testnet/README.mdBecoming a validatorRun a node, create a validator key, get testnet coins for the bond (1,000 to 4,000 FLS depending on the number of validators), and register. The validator becomes active after a 100 block warmup and joins the committee at the next epoch. The steps are in the guide. Post here or open an issue if you want coins for a bond.
ReviewMainnet has not launched and genesis is not frozen. If you find something wrong in the consensus rules or the confidential transaction cryptography, now is when it can still be fixed cleanly. Start with docs/REVIEWING.md. Please report vulnerabilities privately as described in SECURITY.md, not in this thread.
The code is open source under the MIT license.
https://github.com/FinalisCore/finalis-core— the Finalis developer.
