On Thursday,July 19, a new test network for Ethereum’s payments channel project, Raiden network has been launched, CoinDesk reported. The release was announced at the Dappcon Developers Conference in Berlin.
The release includes a minimal implementation of the scaling solution, which will allow the transfer Ethereum tokens outside of the main blockchain. This is the last test phase before the introduction the technology for everyday users.
“It’s the first step towards going to the mainnet,” said Lefteris Karapetsas, core developer of the project.
According to him, the new release represents an early implementation for the core network and contains a new rewritten code of smart contracts and payment channels that can be restored in case of unintended closure.
Also, Karapetsas urged developers to join the test network to help detect possible bugs, adding that a bounty program will be launched to encourage this activity.
“We really want people to really test this so we have a user interface, we have an API and we’ve created an open Github for everything they could find, so if we go hopefully bug-free on the mainnet,” said Karapetsas.
The release date for the main network has not yet been assigned, but the developers intend to follow this earlier promise and launch Raiden this summer, until the end of August.
Karapetsas also promised to publish regular updates and code optimizations after the full release, adding that Raiden will complement other Ethereum scaling solutions that are currently being developed.
Raiden network project is being developed since 2015 and it is analogous to the Lightning Network solution for the bitcoin network. As noted by the developers, after implementing the new solution, the Ethereum network will be able to provide more than a million transactions per second.
The first Raiden network test was launched in September last year.
According today’s trading data from Coinmarketcap, the Ethereum price stood at $465. It has lost 2.54% of its value in the past 24 hours.
