The Metamask client allows access to four test networks:
- Ropsten
- Kovan
- Rinkeby
- Goerli
I'm curious:
- What are the similarities / differences between them?
- Which use cases are best for each network
- Are there more than these listed above?
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Ropsten To Kovan To Rinkeby: Ethereum’s Testnet Troubles – Tom Hale Sep 29 '17 at 11:06
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EIP-225 has the story of Modern up to Rinkeby – 0xcaff Jul 9 at 6:07
- Proof-of-Work (Ethash)
- Supported by Geth, Besu, and all other Ethereum clients
- Best reproduces the current Ethereum production environment
- Chaindata size 15 GB - Apr 2018
- Proof of Authority (Authority Round)
- Supported by OpenEthereum and Nethermind only
- Chaindata size 13 GB - Apr 2018
- Proof of Authority (Clique)
- Supported by Geth, Besu, Nethermind, and OpenEthereum
- Chaindata size 6 GB - Apr 2018
- Proof of Authority (Clique)
- Supported by Geth, Besu, Nethermind, and OpenEthereum
- Chaindata size 0 GB - Apr 2018
If you need a stable testnet with support on multiple clients go with Goerli. If you need to have conditions as close as possible to mainnet, but less stability than Goerli, choose Ropsten.
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 all clients.
- 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 --ropstenbesu --network 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:
openethereum --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:
- Network id:
4 - Block time:
15 seconds - Command:
geth --rinkeby - Explorer https://rinkeby.etherscan.io/
- Github https://github.com/ethereum/EIPs/issues/225
- Website https://www.rinkeby.io
Görli
- Clique PoA testnet started by the Goerli Initiative
- History:
- Started in November 2018 after a proposal by Afri. It's a testnet that has the goal of being both widely usable across all client implementations supporting Clique PoA engine (EIP-225), and robust enough to guarantee consistent availability and high reliability.
- Pros:
- Supported by multiple clients (including Geth, Pantheon, Nethermind and Open Ethereum)
- Chain id:
5 - Network id:
5 - Block time:
15 seconds on average - Status Dashboard: https://stats.goerli.net/
- Explorer https://goerli.etherscan.io/
- Github https://github.com/goerli/testnet
- Website https://www.goerli.net
answered Nov 7 '17 at 10:23
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3Great 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
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@NicolasMassart feel free to edit the answer or send me what you want to add. – medvedev1088 Nov 28 '18 at 8:21
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1@medvedev1088 done. Note the distinct informations for chain id and network id even if values are similar, this is mostly for educational purpose as we'll have to explain why we have those two values one day and that they ca be different... – Nicolas Massart Nov 29 '18 at 10:53
There are other (test-)networks as well, as described in this SO answer, copied here with their network id numbers:
0: Olympic, Ethereum public pre-release testnet1: Frontier, Homestead, Metropolis, the Ethereum public main network1: Classic, the (un)forked public Ethereum Classic main network, chain ID612: Morden, the public Ethereum testnet, now Ethereum Classic testnet (retired)3: Ropsten, the public proof-of-work Ethereum testnet4: Rinkeby, the public Geth Ethereum testnet5: Goerli, the fresh cross-client Ethereum testnet42: Kovan, the public OpenEthereum testnet77: Sokol, the public POA testnet99: POA, the public Proof of Authority Ethereum network
