Sphinx Dapp Testnet (Public Devnet)
Shardeum has launched a new, parallel testnet dedicated to developers and users called ‘Sphinx Dapp’ in addition to the existing ‘Sphinx Validator’ testnet. This initiative marks a significant stride towards accelerating the onboarding of new dapps within the Shardeum ecosystem. It will ensure developers can deploy their contracts and dapps on the Sphinx Dapp testnet without losing momentum while our team debugs and stabilizes the Sphinx Validator Testnet.
As the name suggests, Sphinx Validator testnet is for anyone who wants to run validators, claim testnet tokens from the faucet and stake/unstake test SHM on the betanet. The Sphinx Dapp testnet is for developers to deploy their applications on the new network and for users to test the deployed applications. Another key difference is validators on Sphinx Dapp testnet will be run by the Shardeum team to ensure optimal performance for developers to build their dapps at scale. If you want to run validators on Sphinx Validator and/or deploy and test the deployed dapps on Sphinx Dapp, please make sure to check our docs page for respective endpoint details.
Further, click here to claim test SHM so you can start using the two testnets. Note, both of them have their own faucets.
The short answer is that the two testnets serve different purposes. The public betanet (Sphinx Validator) is designed for validators to run their nodes on the network while also enabling developers to test their dapps on a publicly run network. Sphinx Dapp testnet, on the other hand, is designed for developers (and users) who want to test their dapps in a more stable environment.
Sphinx Validator testnet is still under development, and it may experience some instability which is quite common while developing testnets operated by public validators. The Sphinx Dapp testnet, on the other hand, is designed to be more stable, so that developers can focus on testing their dapps without losing focus on the products they build. As we near mainnet launch, both Sphinx Validator and Sphinx Dapp will be converged as the mainnet. While the term “devnet” is often used to refer to such testnets by L1 blockchains, we wanted to make sure our community understood that this testnet is also for them to help test deployed applications and provide feedback. Therefore, we named it as “Sphinx Dapp” testnet.
There are 20 dapps deployed on Sphinx Dapp testnet as of September 2023. The network also saw significant growth (see the traffic metrics below) demonstrating its stability. Importantly, we are pleased to let you know that 105+ dapps will be deploying on Shardeum soon.
Yes, here is the QuickStart guide and your deployment experience will be a breeze. Further, you will have tremendous edge over your competitors by building on Shardeum. We’ve summarized the advantages for you under the next question. Rest assured, you will be wowed!!
We’re glad you are building a Web3 project irrespective of the chain you chose to build on. Let’s mainstream Web3 together!
There are many incentives if you particularly choose to build on Shardeum. Following are some of the reasons that are already encouraging both the existing developers and new developers to deploy their dapps.
If you see all the above features, they are interconnected on Shardeum with the lynchpin being the ability to scale linearly through dynamic state sharding. That is to say even games or DEXs that typically require very high TPS for a smooth user experience on par or that exceeds the user experience in Web2, will find a suitable match in Shardeum. Remember, Shardeum is solving the scalability trilemma which means the ecosystem will be highly decentralized and secure. As a result, you will never have to worry about rising gas fees, network congestion and outages.
Community and end users are the most important part of a Web3 ecosystem. How is Shardeum shaping up in that respect? Well, your user acquisition is in great hands to put it modestly. Shardeum has the 2nd biggest Discord community among the top layer 1’s with over 500,000 members. And it is the fastest growing L1 blockchain with over 800,000 community members as of July 2023.
The Shardeum Foundation further plans to launch a grants program later in 2023. Early adopters that have demonstrated measurable progress in development and community growth on Shardeum’s testnets will be prioritized. Shardeum’s world class marketing team will assist you with co-marketing efforts. The foundation’s leadership will also provide advisory support to you so you can launch your dapps and be part of the ecosystem growth from the get go!
You can express your interest in partnering with Shardeum by submitting the partnership enquiry form. You can also alternatively reach out to Shahzad Nathani, Head of Operations or Gregory Hemmer, Head of Ecosystem. You can start by submitting the partnership enquiry form though, which will help us to understand your needs better and how we can best partner with you.
Please report bugs on the Sphinx Dapp network here.
Shardeum’s protocol will be completely open sourced by the time the network reaches mainnet which is scheduled for Q1 of 2024. At this time though, Shardeum has open sourced the validator codebase.
Whitepaper was released on 8th November 2023. Here is the link
