Does a testnet ever merge with the mainnet? In other words, if I have ETH on a testnet, will I ever have actual ETH or do testnets remain for testing forever?
I Googled in multiple ways but could never find a simple "No" or "Yes" to this question.
No.
That would be like money you printed at home rising to the level of actual cash. There is no path where that happens.
Hope it helps.
answered Nov 25 '19 at 20:10
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Understood. The thing is, I was being rewarded in test coins all this while on Rinkeby for testing of a project. The way they talked was that I was getting ETH or will get it. Thanks for answering my questions, I guess I need to have a serious talk with them now. – Abhimanyu Nov 26 '19 at 8:31
Just adding a bit of nuance to Rob's answer.
All Ethereum testnets started with a blank slate and have never and will never sync the balances with mainnet. Don't mistake them for hard spoons, which are blockchains that cloned the balances of another blockchain, but remain independent in all other regards.
answered Nov 25 '19 at 20:14
No. All networks have different IDs, thats the discriminating them when running on a client. Also, all clients need to speak and sync with the same ID.
Here is a summary of IDs to get an idea. https://ethereum.stackexchange.com/a/17101/5375
