Community Proposes to Retain Goerli Testnet as a Canary Network

GoerliDAO, a newly established decentralized autonomous organization, has proposed retaining Ethereum’s Goerli testnet as a Canary network.

Goerli is an Ethereum testnet used by developers worldwide. Its lifecycle has spanned from Q1 2019 to Q4 2023, after which it was scheduled to be deprecated in favor of the Holesovice testnet. Major updates like The Merge have undergone testing on Goerli.

Earlier this week, GoerliDAO, an organization with unclear origins, suggested continuing the operation of Goerli due to its undeniable impact on the community.

As a result, GoerliDAO is proposing to explore solutions to transition Goerli into an official Canary network for Ethereum. Unlike testnets, Canary networks are primarily used to assess updates in a riskier environment, closely mimicking the mainnet before a full release.

GoerliDAO explained:

“The widespread application of Goerli makes it an ideal candidate to become Ethereum’s official Canary network. It would provide unique advantages for both developers and users. The success of Kusama for Polkadot serves as a notable example.”

Last month, LayerZero launched the Testnet Bridge, a bridge connecting Ethereum’s mainnet and the Goerli testnet, facilitating asset transfers between the two chains. This move by LayerZero sparked considerable controversy, as it inadvertently led to Goerli being perceived as a legitimate blockchain.

The key feature of the Testnet Bridge is eliminating the need to acquire gETH (Goerli’s test token) through faucets, which is time-consuming. Instead, users can directly swap for gETH via Uniswap.

Despite objections to preserving the essence of a testnet, the price of gETH has reached as high as $1.60 due to increasing demand.