Sui Testnet Wave 1 Goes Live

We are thrilled to announce the start of Sui Testnet Wave 1, the first instance of a Sui Network working with non-Mysten Labs operators, and an important step towards a decentralized Sui Mainnet. Testnet Wave 1 lets us understand interoperability among validators, while Devnet remains the appropriate network for builders. We will keep the Testnet Wave 1 network running for approximately two to three weeks.

Testnet Wave 1 focuses on operators. In August, we released an open application for Sui operators and received an overwhelming response, with over 28,000 applications. We selected a few hundred of the standouts to operate Sui validators and Full Nodes. During this first wave, we hope to build muscle memory for decentralized coordination and incident response, and discover a core group of dedicated operators who are experienced with deploying, monitoring, and debugging Sui. We will almost certainly encounter some bumps during our first attempt at operating a decentralized network, but these incidents will be learning experiences that provide valuable practice for the real thing.

As an incentivized Testnet Wave, this network will be transitory, shutting down once we achieve our goals. We will stand up successive Testnet Waves as we proceed to Mainnet.

With Sui, we intend to set a new standard for web3 infrastructure. Unlike other blockchains, Sui uses an object-oriented data model to represent digital assets. We launched Sui Devnet on May 6, 2022 to put our theories of a next-generation blockchain to the test. As our 300,000-plus member community exercised various aspects of Devnet, we enhanced instrumentation, strengthened monitoring and alerting, addressed bottlenecks in core logic, tested restartability and crash recovery, and profiled memory and CPU usage on various system components.

The Sui community is our greatest asset as we further test the Sui infrastructure, and we thank you and look forward to your involvement!

Sui Devnet versus Testnet

The biggest advance from Devnet to Testnet Wave 1 is the inclusion of independent validators. Under Devnet, Mysten Labs operates four validators to verify transactions on the network. Testnet Wave 1 includes third-party validators and Full Nodes selected from our open application process.

Incident management will move from Mysten Labs control, as conducted on Devnet, to community-driven on Testnet. This change gives community members greater input and responsibility for maintaining the health of Sui.

A note for our builders: Due to the transitory and operator-focused nature of Testnet Wave 1, Devnet remains the preferred environment for developers to build and test applications. Testnet may be subject to operational drills, and due to its geo-distributed nature may have longer coordination delays for fixes. The faucet may also be subject to rate limits to ensure a smooth experience for our operators. Developer experience issues will be addressed more expediently on Devnet, and the validator software will be updated more frequently.

Additionally, Move packages using the recently introduced new integer types (u16, u32, and u256) will not work in this Testnet Wave. Publishing them will fail with a verification error.

How to Engage

Building blockchain infrastructure requires transparency and public engagement. As we move towards Mainnet, the Sui community will continue to grow and play an increasing role in Sui’s operation. Stay tuned for Wave 2, which will focus on epoch management, tokenomics, and stake delegation. We will announce the timing based on our results and learnings from Wave 1.

There are no current plans for a SUI airdrop, and interacting with the Testnet will not win you any prizes. We appreciate meaningful interaction that helps us test Sui!