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Every application goes through an extensive testing phase before they are rolled out to real-world users. These tests are even more important for apps that closely deal with finance, for example blockchain based apps. There are already some Blockchain testing tools available in the market, but they are quite resource-hungry and remain operational even after the tests are completed. To address this problem, Ephemeral Testnet was introduced to the blockchain world.
In this blog post on Ephemeral Testnet, we'll find out what Ephemeral Testnet brings to the table as a sophisticated testing environment.
What is Ephemeral Testnet?
Ephemeral Testnet is a temporary blockchain network that exists for a predefined time crafted with the purpose of testing out blockchain-based applications. Because Ephemeral Testnet blockchains are temporary, developers can create and demolish them as needed.
Apart from its aforementioned properties, another thing that makes Ephemeral Testnet different is that the test conditions can be highly customized according to the need to replicate the real-world scenario as closely as possible. The Ephemeral Testnet test environment remains isolated from other blockchain networks.
Use of Ephemeral Tesnet
- To test the functionality of blockchain apps and smart contracts.
- To test the apps and smart contracts under network stress.
- To test various blockchain features.
- To test the app against network attacks.
Features of Ephemeral Testnet
After its launch in 2019, Ephemeral Testnet has emerged as one of the most favorite blockchain-based service testing platforms in a few years. Here are the reason why developers prefer to use Ephemeral Testnet over any other blockchain test environment.
Customization: Not only simulations, Ephemeral Testnet provides tools beyond simulation, such as mimicking real blockchain network behavior, accurate experimental validation, and the ability to create isolated tests.
Security: As most testnets run on distributed public computers, the data of the test are vulnerable, so testing on these testnets becomes risky. However, as Ephemeral blockchain environments runs in a secure and isolated environment, the chances of the test data getting leaked decrease significantly.
Speed: For traditional testnets, it takes much time to set them up and deploy them. On the other hand, deploying on Ephemeral Testnet is very time-efficient. Not only at the time of deploying but at the time of running the tests, typical testnets can be slow due to network congestion and other issues - this is another area where Ephemeral Testnet beats typical testnets in terms of speed.
Resources: One of the best reasons to use Ephemeral Testnet is its resource efficiency. It takes too much energy, computational power, and storage to run a permanent testnet - that’s why running permanent testnets becomes economically inefficient. But, that’s not the case with Ephemeral Testnet - due to being lightweight, deploying on an Ephemeral Testnet is resource efficient and requires minimal maintenance.
Customization & Controls in Ephemeral Testnet
Ephemeral Testnets provide all sorts of customization features that an ordinary blockchain test environment offers, additionally, it offers some unique features too. Blockchain developers can mimic exact real-world conditions in the testnet to check how their app or platform and its underlying technology handle them.
Below are the things that a developer has full control over in Ephemeral Testnet -
Mechanism Control: Developers can switch between different kinds of rewarding algorithms in blockchain networks, Proof of Stake, Delegated Proof of Stake, Proof of Work, etc. By switching between these consensus mechanisms, developers understand how the platform or service reacts on the network for different consensus algorithms.
Developers can also control certain criteria, like the minimum amount of funds a user needs to hold to make a transaction. These parameters have a direct impact on users as a lower ‘minimum stake’ would enable more users to use the platform while a higher ‘minimum stake’ would cause fewer users to use the service (however, it also increases security).
Control over Block Generation: A blockchain is simply a chain of blocks - these blocks are generated using very sophisticated algorithms. While testing, developers can select the time intervals of blocks being added to the blockchain or alter the size of the blocks, developers can also implement custom rules for validation of blocks. Thus devs can test the network load capability of the system, especially at times of network congestion.
Network Tests: For any blockchain app or platform, one of the most crucial technical challenges is the networking of the platform. When developers test an app or a platform, they test how the blockchain performs under various network conditions by modifying the latency, congestion of the network.
In the backbone of any blockchain, there are nodes (computers) - but under any circumstances, they can get disconnected from the blockchain. That’s why developers also test how a blockchain will react when one or multiple nodes are disconnected from the network.
Performance and Stress Test: Developers purposely create a high volume of transactions to test the network. They not only modify volume but also transaction types and transaction patterns for testing.
These were the main features of a network that almost all blockchain testing services including Ephemeral Testnet offer. Below are the test-control features that are exclusive to Ephemeral Testnet.
Exclusive features of Ephemeral Testnet
- Developers can create a completely isolated blockchain network from scratch within a few minutes, test the blockchain network, and destroy the network.
- Developers can test the network healing mechanism and how the network revives.
- Developers can simulate the neural network behavior of blockchains.
- Developers can implement protocols.
Ephemeral Testnet Setup
Compared to traditional testnets, it’s quite easy and straightforward to set up an Ephemeral Testnet. Here’s a step-by-step guide to set up an Ephemeral Testnet.
- First things first - To set up a Ephemeral Testnet, you need to select a suitable blockchain framework. You can choose any of the following (consider the advantages and disadvantages) or go beyond them -
- Now that you have selected the perfect framework, it’s time to configure your environment according to your needs. You have proper control in your hand - you can specify consensus algorithms, block size, block generation time, etc.
- And now, it’s time for the launch. If you have capable hardware, you can try running this on your local machine otherwise, you can try running this on a cloud.
- After launching your testnet, finally, it’s finally time to test your apps or smart contracts. If you’re smart contracts or apps are having problems, this is the time to debug the errors - a debugging tool can be your best friend during this process.
- If your app or smart contracts are showing promising results even against the odds at different test conditions and if you want to exit the test session, you can quite easily terminate the testing session - this will kill all the processes.
Conclusion
That’s all the basics you need to know about Ephemeral Testnet. We hope that reading this Ephemeral testnet guide has been worth your time. To sum up everything, Ephemeral testnet is currently the best testnet to test your blockchain-based apps and smart contracts. If you have built a blockchain-based app or service and you’re concerned about the performance of the service in real-world conditions, you should test that under different scenarios in Ephemeral testnet. Go ahead - tweak the parameters and make your apps and services ready to be used by real-world users.
FAQ
- What is the main difference between Ephemeral testnets and traditional testnets?
The main difference between an Ephemeral testnet and a traditional testnet is that in Ephemeral testnet developers can terminate the testnet right after the tests are completed but in traditional testnets, developers can’t kill the testnets.
- What are the frameworks used to create Ephemeral testnet?
The most popular frameworks used to create Ephemeral testnet are Geth, Ganache, Hardhat, etc.
- What makes an Ephemeral testnet more secure than a traditional testnet?
Unlike a traditional testnet, Ephemeral testnet creates a secure and isolated environment for testing. When a testing session is terminated, all the testing data are deleted - these are the things that make Ephemeral testnets more secure than traditional testnets.
- Can Ephemeral testnet be used by multiple users at a time?
Yes, when deployed in the cloud, Ephemeral testnet can be used by multiple developers. This is especially useful if there are multiple teams to address various issues in the codebase. However, it may be difficult to collaborate in Ephemeral testnet if deployed on a local machine.
- Do I need a high-end PC to run Ephemeral testnet?
No, to run Ephemeral testnet, you don’t need a powerful PC with state-of-the-art specifications. Ephemeral testnets are lightweight, hence with decent specifications, you’ll be able to run Ephemeral testnet on your local machine and perform the tests efficiently.
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