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Basic or more like "fundamental" question I guess:

So if I got that right, each time someone runs Geth/Parity or other software they all become part of the EVM (ethereum virtual machine). However once you run this on port 8545 it's all mainnet...or maybe not?

Which still leads to my question: who confirms transactions on say Ropsten? Currrently I am sending many "succesfull" transaction to Ropsten contracts and I wait a few seconds for confirmation as if this is a real transfer occuring on the blockchain (mainnnet) but I am curious is this really done by miners using Geth or is it just fake time-waiting to appear as if someone really confirms those? Thanks!

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  • AFAIK (though it's a matter of terminology I suppose), an EVM is just a standard for what an Ethereum Node should do. Hence Geth, Parity, Ganache and friends are all running an EVM whenever you start one. And when you do, your Ethereum Node becomes part of the blockchain network. – goodvibration Nov 6 '19 at 20:45
  • Yes but my question was: do people actually run geth/parity in a "Testmode" and hence operating a ropsten network and finally: some people do use CPU to mine testnet transaction? I just googled, this is likely the case? – Robert Ggg Nov 6 '19 at 20:50
  • Anyone who runs an Ethereum Node configured to connect to Ropsten (network id = 3) and with mining option enabled, can be the one mining any given transaction of yours. – goodvibration Nov 6 '19 at 20:50
  • AFAIK, a Ropsten miner doesn't spend that much amount of CPU power, since Ropsten difficulty level is low (hence Ropsten Ether is a rather "unworthy" financial currency). – goodvibration Nov 6 '19 at 20:52
  • sure 10x, my suspicion and very likely the case..I am now curious how many people do it and what software do they use. Shodan gives thosuands of geth/parity nodes on 8545 running yet I guess to guess which one is running on ropsten (id 3) I guess they give banner "ethereum testjs" or something...or it's close to impossible to guess which one is on mainnnet and which one on testnets. – Robert Ggg Nov 6 '19 at 20:52
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  • Ropsten transactions are confirmed by miners on that POW network.
  • Rinkeby transactions are confirmed by specific authorized nodes run by the the Geth team. The Ethereum Foundation, Infura, AKASHA and others might also be involved.
    Non-validator nodes are run by others in the ethereum space such as PegaSys, Funfair, etc. You can see the list of Rinkeby nodes running here.

Ropsten is a Proof of work network that anyone can sync to, although, being a test network, its token isn't of value, so Ropsten ETH is given out in faucets like this. Technically, Ropsten has the closest conditions to the real mainnet.

Rinkeby is a Proof of Authority network, where the consensus mechanism is different from mainnet and only some select nodes can validate transactions.

Both of these solutions are less decentralized and less secure than mainnet, yet have advantages such as speed and ease of deployment and therefore are used for developing purposes.

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