What is the TBTC Bitcoin testnet and why do the developers think it needs improvements?

Casa, a Bitcoin custodian firm based in the US, operates a separate and parallel version of the Bitcoin blockchain called the TBTC testnet. This technology supports the TBTC token, which has no financial value attached, but serves to test around new protocols that can be supported on the Bitcoin blockchain. Actually the full form of TBTC is ‘Testnet Bitcoin’. Casa co-founder and blockchain developer Jameson Lopp said in a recent blogpost that this TBTC testnet is in need of immediate configuration improvements.

The TBTC testnet helps developers explore the workings of potentially usable blockchain solutions. This TestNest is used for testing and developing these solutions. On testnet Bitcoin, transaction speeds are significantly higher than the original mainnet. To put things into perspective, there is an average of 144 blocks Allegedly Bitcoin is produced on the mainnet on a daily basis, while TBTC, on the other hand, is capable of producing over 10,000 blocks per day.

Due to the speed of processing blocks, the testnet has already logged a block height of 2,811,000. The blockchain will need to reach this block height for Bitcoin’s mainnet Allegedly Need to wait till the year 2061. This development has resulted in the reward tokens earned by testnet miners falling to almost zero – making the testnet almost unusable for developers. As a result, the number of TBTC tokens – which can be exchanged for BTC and are the core of the testnet – has become extremely scarce as miners are not adding new blocks. Currently, the block reward for these testnet miners is only ~0.006 TBTC.

According to CASA chief, Lope, “Testnet coins should be abundant and free so that developers can experiment and test their Bitcoin software without spending money or risking real value while debugging the software. Reset Bitcoin’s testnet now.” It’s time to do this, also known more specifically as ‘testnet’ or ‘testnet3’.”

The TBTC testnet has not been reconfigured in the last thirteen years.

“People are using it (testnet) for airdrops and other activities that promise real value. This has created economic demand for TBTC. People are buying/selling TBTC on many sites. There is a weird quirk in the testnet that we should fix as it is partly responsible for getting us to this point,” Lope mentioned in his blog post.

As of yet, it is unclear when this blockchain improvement work will begin on TBTC and what its consequences will be for developers using it to design Bitcoin-compatible protocols.