Comparison of the different TestNets

Question

The Metamask client allows access to three test networks:

I'm curious:

Ropsten To Kovan To Rinkeby: Ethereum’s Testnet Troubles – Tom Hale Sep 29 '17 at 11:06 — Tom Hale, Sep 29 '17 at 11:06

medvedev1088 · Accepted Answer · 2018-06-08 08:48:07Z

If you need support on both geth and parity go wtih Ropsten. Otherwise choose Kovan, Sokol or Rinkeby as they are more stable.

Detailed version below:

Ropsten

PoW testnet
History:
- Started in November 2016. Named after a subway station in Stockholm.
- Was DoS attacked in February 2017 which made synching slow and made clients consume a lot of disk space.
- Was revived in March 2017 and became usable again.
Pros:
- Best reproduces the current production environment, i.e. system and network conditions on the live Ethereum mainnet, because it's PoW net.
- Can be used with both geth and parity.
- Ether can be mined. Or requested from a faucet:
Cons:
- Not immune to spam attacks. Because of this it's less stable.
Network id: 3
Block time: sub-30 seconds
Commands:
- geth --testnet or geth --networkid 3
- parity --chain ropsten
Explorer https://ropsten.etherscan.io/
Github https://github.com/ethereum/ropsten

Kovan

PoA testnet started by the Parity team
History:
- Started in March 2017. Named after a subway station in Singapore.
Pros:
- Immune to spam attacks (as Ether supply is controlled by trusted parties)
Cons:
- Not supported in geth.
- Doesn't fully reproduce the current production environment as it uses PoA.
- Ether can't be mined. It has to be requested from the faucet.
Network id: 42
Block time: 4 seconds
Command: parity --chain kovan
Explorer https://kovan.etherscan.io/
Github https://github.com/kovan-testnet/proposal

Rinkeby

PoA testnet started by the Ethereum team. Uses Clique PoA consensus protocol.
History:
- Started in April 2017. Named after a metro station in Stockholm.
Pros:
- Immune to spam attacks (as Ether supply is controlled by trusted parties)
Cons:
- Supported by geth only
- Doesn't fully reproduce the current production environment as it uses PoA.
- Ether can't be mined. It has to be requested from a faucet:
  - https://faucet.rinkeby.io/
Network id: 4
Block time: 15 seconds
Command: geth --rinkeby or geth --networkid 4
Explorer https://rinkeby.etherscan.io/
Github https://github.com/ethereum/EIPs/issues/225
Website https://www.rinkeby.io

Sokol

PoA testnet started by the POA.network team
History:
- Started in December 2017. Named after a subway station in Moscow.
Pros:
- Immune to spam attacks (as Ether supply is controlled by trusted parties)
Cons:
- Not supported in geth.
- Doesn't fully reproduce the current production environment as it uses PoA.
- Ether can't be mined. It has to be requested from the faucet.
Network id: 77
Block time: 5 seconds
Explorer https://sokol-explorer.poa.network/
Public faucet: https://faucet-sokol.herokuapp.com/
RPC endpoint: https://sokol.poa.network
Wiki: https://github.com/poanetwork/wiki/wiki/POA-Network-Resources
Github https://github.com/poanetwork/poa-chain-spec/tree/sokol

Great answer. Could you also tell us about the approximate size (in gigs) of each as of today ,please? It s v. important for people with a small hd :). — hartmut, Dec 17 '17 at 21:53

Stan James · Answer 2 · 2018-01-09 22:17:52Z

There are other networks as well, as described in this SO answer, copied here with their network id numbers:

0: Olympic, Ethereum public pre-release testnet
1: Frontier, Homestead, Metropolis, the Ethereum public main network
1: Classic, the (un)forked public Ethereum Classic main network, chain ID 61
1: Expanse, an alternative Ethereum implementation, chain ID 2
2: Morden, the public Ethereum testnet, now Ethereum Classic testnet
3: Ropsten, the public cross-client Ethereum testnet
4: Rinkeby, the public Geth Ethereum testnet
42: Kovan, the public Parity Ethereum testnet
77: Sokol, the public POA testnet
99: POA, the public Proof of Authority Ethereum network
7762959: Musicoin, the music blockchain

2 Answers 2