Testnet faucets provide a risk free way to experiment with DeFi and cryptocurrency. You enter your address and get testnet tokens for free which hold no value. In this article I’ll be providing the latest details for all available public testnets. At the end I carry out some analysis to gain insights into developer activity across different protocols.
- Why Use Testnets
- Testnets | The Defi Playground [Video]
- How To Use A Testnet Faucet
- Ethereum Testnets
- Binance Smart Chain Testnet
- Polygon Testnet
- Avalanche Testnet
- HECO Testnet
- Solana Testnet
- Cardano Testnet
- Bitcoin Testnet
- Developer Activity Analysis
Why Use Testnets
Developers have always used testnets to experiment with smart contracts. I believe they are one of the most underused and underappreciated factors for non-technical crypto market participants.
Anyone can set up a digital wallet such as metamask, select a testnet from the drop down network options (Ethereum’s come pre-installed), go to a faucet and request some free tokens.
Every DeFi protocol and decentralized exchange I’ve ever used has had a testnet deployment. Most go live before the official mainnet release which gives users the opportunity to check it out in advance.
The first time I used Metamask to move money around it was a daunting experience. I remember checking every letter of the receivers address. Worrying about if it would go through for what felt like an eternity of block confirmations. After a few times it became like second nature and I zip funds around with more confidence than I’d have using a traditional banking app. This is the benefit of using testnets.
Testnet faucets provide free monopoly money so users can try things out, make mistakes and build confidence in a risk free environment.
Testnets | The DeFi Playground [Video]
How To Use A Testnet Faucet
To use a testnet you first need to setup a digital wallet. I’d recommend Metamask chrome extension which you can here. Once you have a wallet you can change then network by clicking on the drop down tab.
If the network isn’t available you’ll probably find it here:
Once you have the right network selected. You can get faucet tokens by going to:
Sometimes the metamask faucet doesn’t work as each network has limits on users per time period. If this is the case then find your network from the list below and use the faucet listed or alternatively google the network name followed by “testnet faucet”.
Enter your address (available by clicking copy to clipboard at the top of metamask) and follow the steps to receive free testnet tokens.
From there you can go to your favourite automated market maker such as Uniswap and trade some tokens or experiment with different DeFi platforms. Uniswap is deployed across all the major Ethereum testnets, some protocols will only be deployed to one which will be detailed in the docs.
Ethereum Testnets
There are four main Ethereum testnets, each with slightly different configurations. For general usage I’d recommend Kovan as it has the fastest block times, simple faucet and I’ve always found it reliable and easy to use. For a more accurate representation of the Ethereum mainnet you can use Ropsten which is designed to be as close as possible to the real Ethereum mainnet.
Kovan Testnet
Faucet: https://gitter.im/kovan-testnet/faucet
Block time: 6 seconds
Network Activity: 0.2 TPS
Network ID: 42
Provider URL: https://kovan.infura.io/v3/${infuraAPIKey}
Consensus Mechanism: Proof of Authority
Explorer: https://kovan.etherscan.io/
Github: https://github.com/kovan-testnet/proposal
Ropsten Testnet
Faucet: https://faucet.ropsten.be
Block time: 15 seconds
Network Activity: 0.8 TPS
Network ID: 3
Provider URL: https://ropsten.infura.io/v3/${infuraAPIKey}
Consensus Mechanism: Proof of Work
Block time: sub-30 seconds
Explorer: https://ropsten.etherscan.io/
Github: https://github.com/ethereum/ropsten
Rinkeby Testnet
Faucet: https://faucet.rinkeby.io
Block time: 25 seconds
Network Activity: 1 TPS
Network ID: 4
Provider URL: https://rinkeby.infura.io/v3/${infuraAPIKey}
Consensus Mechanism: Proof of Authority
Explorer: https://rinkeby.etherscan.io/
Github: https://github.com/ethereum/EIPs/issues/225
Goerli Testnet
Faucet: https://faucet.goerli.mudit.blog
Block time: 15 seconds
Network Activity: 0.3 TPS
Network ID: 5
Provider URL: https://goerli.infura.io/v3/${infuraAPIKey}
Consensus Mechanism: Proof of Authority
Explorer: https://goerli.etherscan.io/
Github: https://github.com/goerli/testnet
Optimism Testnet
Optimism testnet is deployed on the Kovan layer 1. Use the Kovan faucet and then bridge assets across.
More details here: Optimism Tutorial
Faucet: https://gitter.im/kovan-testnet/faucet
Bridge: https://gateway.optimism.io/
Block time: Layer 2 Batches
Network Activity: 0.06 TPS
Network ID:
Provider URL: Infura requires paid account
Consensus Mechanism: Optimistic Rollup
Explorer: https://kovan-optimistic.etherscan.io/
Github: https://github.com/ethereum-optimism/optimism
Arbitrum Testnet
Arbitrum testnet is deployed on the Rinkeby layer 1 testnet. Use the Rinkeby faucet and then bridge assets across.
More details here: Arbitrum Tutorial
Faucet: https://faucet.rinkeby.io
Bridge: https://bridge.arbitrum.io/
Block time: Layer 2 Batches
Network Activity: 0.3 TPS
Network ID: 421611
Provider URL: https://rinkeby.arbitrum.io/rpc
Consensus Mechanism: Optimistic Rollup
Explorer: https://rinkeby-explorer.arbitrum.io/#/
Github: https://github.com/OffchainLabs/arbitrum
Binance Smart Chain Testnet
Faucet: https://testnet.binance.org/faucet-smart
Block time: 3 seconds
Network Activity: 2 TPS
Network ID: 97
Provider URL: https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.binance.org:8545
Consensus Mechanism: Proof of Staked Authority
Explorer: https://testnet.bscscan.com/
Github: https://github.com/binance-chain/bsc
Polygon Mumbai Testnet
Faucet: https://matic.supply
Block time: 2 seconds
Network Activity: 0.2 TPS
Network ID: 80001
Provider URL: https://polygon-mumbai.infura.io/v3/${infuraAPIKey}
Consensus Mechanism: Proof of State
Explorer: https://mumbai.polygonscan.com/
Github: https://github.com/maticnetwork/bor
Avalanche Fuji Testnet
Faucet: https://faucet.avax-test.network
Block time: 8 seconds
Network Activity: 0.1 TPS
Network ID: 43113
Provider URL: https://api.avax-test.network/ext/bc/C/rpc
Consensus Mechanism: Probabilistic Proof of Stake
Explorer: https://cchain.explorer.avax-test.network/
Github: https://github.com/ava-labs/avalanchego
HECO Testnet
Faucet: https://scan-testnet.hecochain.com/faucet
Block time: 3 seconds
Network Activity: 0.3 TPS
Network ID: 256
Provider URL: https://http-testnet.hecochain.com
Consensus Mechanism: HPoS Proof of Staked Authority
Explorer: https://testnet.hecoinfo.com/
Github: https://github.com/HuobiGroup/huobi-eco-chain
Solana Testnet
There’s more details on Solana development here: Solana Tutorial
Faucet: https://solfaucet.com
Block time: 0.8 seconds
Network Activity: 1600 TPS (Actual usage obfuscated by internal transactions)
Network ID: Not EVM Compatible
Provider URL: https://api.testnet.solana.com
Consensus Mechanism: Tower Consensus Proof of Stake
Explorer: https://explorer.solana.com/?cluster=testnet
Github: https://github.com/solana-labs/solana
Solana DevNet
Faucet: https://solfaucet.com
Block time: 0.8 seconds
Network Activity: 1600 TPS (Actual usage obfuscated by internal transactions)
Network ID: Not EVM Compatible
Provider URL: https://api.devnet.solana.com
Consensus Mechanism: Tower Consensus Proof of Stake
Explorer: https://explorer.solana.com/?cluster=devnet
Github: https://github.com/solana-labs/solana
Cardano Testnet
Faucet: https://testnets.cardano.org/en/testnets/cardano/tools/faucet/
Block time: 15 seconds
Network Activity: 0 TPS
Network ID: Not EVM Compatible
Provider URL: Coming Soon
Consensus Mechanism: Proof of Stake
Explorer: https://explorer.cardano-testnet.iohkdev.io/en
Github: https://github.com/input-output-hk/cardano-node
Bitcoin Testnet
Faucet: https://testnet-faucet.mempool.co/
Block time: 600 seconds
Network Activity: 0.2 TPS
Network ID: Not EVM Compatible
Provider URL: TBA.
Consensus Mechanism: Proof of Work
Explorer: https://www.blockchain.com/explorer?view=btc-testnet
Github: https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin
Developer Activity Analysis
We can compile the transactions per second from this analysis into a chart.
Raw data below:
const tps = { Ethereum: 2.3, Optimism: 0.06, Arbitrum: 0.3, BinanceSC: 2, Polygon: 0.2, Avalanche: 0.1, HECO: 0.3, Solana: 0, Cardano: 0, Bitcoin: 0.2 }I was surprised and skeptical to see how much network throughput Binance Smart Chain is getting. I know there’s a lot of development around yield farming and Pancakeswap but it’s astonishing to see that it’s not far off the same levels as Ethereum. Having said that I’ve spent as much time myself recently on the BSC testnet as I have any of the others.
I was a little bit disappointed to see such low volumes on Optimism and Arbitrum. Optimism it’s actually quite difficult to setup a dev environment because you need a paid infura account and Arbitrum hasn’t actually released the mainnet yet. These stats provide a single data point that Arbitrum is winning the battle between layer 2’s currently.
Note that in theory it would be pretty easy to manipulate testnet and even mainnet transaction volumes and this data was collected over a single one hour period. There’s plenty of room to improve the scientific method if anyone wants better data.
Solana is a bit of an unknown as I couldn’t find a way to get the real world usage stats unfortunately. The block explorer was quoting around 1600 TPS which I think is mainly internal transactions like the rent fees for storage capacity.
HECO has more transactions on their testnet than Polygon. I would like to have a closer look at the HT token at some point so I’ll have a deeper look into the Huobi ecosystem.
Anyone who’s outside of the blockchain development space might be surprised by Bitcoin’s low stats but this is expected because there’s not much you can do with it from a developer perspective. Bitcoin does one thing very well whereas most of the other networks run smart contracts which enable programmable money.
Hopefully this information will help someone gain some testnet tokens and discover the next big DeFi protocol. Enjoy the monopoly money!
