IOTA Releases Updated Stratified Testnet Scheme

The development of the IOTA network has taken a significant step forward with the launch of several new testnets that will replace the current "Mainnet Lite" test Tangle.

The suite of new IOTA testnets will allow developers to work on apps, collect statistics, and stress test transactional limit of the network, working toward the ultimate goal of pushing the Tangle to the limit.

A recent blog post on the IOTA Medium page unveiled the team's plans to roll out four separate testnets in order to serve the community's needs.

The post reveals how the current system of development has resulted in the inefficient management of projects, allowing exchanges and active marketplaces to utilize the testnet while community members continue function testing on the mainnet.

The upcoming varied iterations of testnet work to streamline the development environment by allowing developers to interact with different versions of the IOTA Reference Implementation, a series of APIs and Libraries used to interface with the network.

Testnet - part of an upcoming suite of testnets, little has been revealed apart from its iterative and high throughput nature, allowing for greater expansion at a later date.

These new stratified Testnets are focused on providing developers with greater specificity when it comes to R&D, as previous localized simulations are often limited in scope when compared to real-world data.

IOTA's main goal for the new testnets is to combat two prominent network phenomena that have been regularly recurring - blowballs and CTPS variance.

These new stratified testnets serve both the IOTA team and the developer community to better operate and experiment with realistic environments, allowing them to accelerate workflow and close the gap between development machines and the IOTA Mainnet release.

The launch of the new testnet suite is set to dramatically improve and streamline the development process, bringing IOTA's machine economy future one step closer.