Thread by @taikoxyz

We are excited to share that the Taiko alpha-3 testnet is LIVE! 🥁

This marks a significant milestone on our journey towards a decentralized, Ethereum-equivalent ZK-EVM. This testnet will be critical in testing much of the network design and components.

Let's dive in 👇

1/21

Full alpha-3 launch details are in our blog post: taiko.mirror.xyz/wD7yN8Y5RttbP7…

You can find all guides here: taiko.xyz/docs/guides

Continue reading this thread for a summary of the blog post above.

2/21

Relative to alpha-2, the major changes are:

1. New protocol economics design and implementation
2. Both proposers AND provers are permissionless (alpha-1 had only permissionless proposers, alpha-2 had only permissionless provers)
3. Support Taiko Inception Layers (L3)

3/21

This testnet focuses on the decentralized part of our decentralized, Ethereum-equivalent ZK-EVM. Or to be more specific, permissionlessness that can tend towards decentralization.

4/21

We test how BOTH proposers AND provers interact with each other and with the protocol, driven only by protocol economic incentives.

5/21

Taiko Inception Layers (L3): Another significant feature to test is deploying Taiko on top of Taiko as an L3, something we submit is maximally simple owing to the reusability of the Type-1 design.

We'll conduct this in a few weeks time. We'll tweet more about it soon!

6/21

Summary of similarities compared to previous testnets:

Taiko remains open to:

1) All devs to deploy smart contracts (all Ethereum tooling supported)
2) All users to send and play around with transactions
3) Anyone to run an L2 node (req. for proposer/prover)

7/21

To accomplish the goal of testing the new protocol economics design, alpha-3 will be an incentivized testnet.

We test how both permissionless proposers AND provers act in a mainnet-simulated environment, where they act rationally according to the protocol fees/rewards.

8/21

Simulating a mainnet environment with permissionless economic activity is not so simple on a testnet due to the lack of real value assets. We do our best as follows:

9/21

We establish TTKO test token (Test TKO). Proposers need to pay in this token to propose blocks (alongside with Sepolia ETH). We will seed alpha-1 and alpha-2 testnet participants with TTKO testnet tokens. See the blog post for more details.

10/21

To avoid spam proposing blocks (which would hurt provers who must expend computing resources), we openly signal that TTKO balance will be among the inputs rewarding network participants come mainnet. We do not provide more info to how, because we have not conceived of it.

11/21

We also signal that useful and rational block building will be among the inputs rewarding network participants come mainnet time. We do not provide a specific formula, because doing so would render any formula as gameable goal.

12/21

The idea is: Imagine you are a rollup proposer trying to maximize the real L2 fees you earn.

The L1 environment is the Ethereum testnet, Sepolia.

13/21

Expectations (1/3): You should only participate if you are keen to help Taiko to test a technical design. Reward or profit considerations (if any) will heavily depend on a variety of factors - and is in no way guaranteed.

14/21

Expectations (2/3): Certain assumptions used may not reflect reality for the duration of the testnet period, protocol flaws can be found, and mainnet timing is uncertain. We reserve the right to adjust the program.

15/21

Expectations (3/3): Our ultimate goal is to test permissionless proposing and proving in a ZK-Rollup. Again, you should only participate if you are keen to help the network test a technical design. Basically, for science.

16/21

We expect alpha-3 to be a longer lived testnet. This way, community builders, Ethereum ecosystem projects, and other partners can deploy and integrate in a steadier state. However, please be aware that in some cases a regenesis may still be required.

17/21

We're super excited for you to deploy dapps, become block proposers/provers, or any other contributions to our community and mission.

You can find the guides here: taiko.xyz/docs/guides -- you will also find info on how to join as a proposer/prover.

18/21

If you are not a member of Taiko's Discord community yet, we invite you to come join the fun!

We provide more detailed updates on Discord through our #announcement channel and suggest you keep an eye on that to stay updated: discord.gg/taikoxyz

19/21

We invite you to join Community Call #3 on Friday, June 9th at 14:00 UTC on our Discord server to celebrate the launch. 🥳

We have a "ask-taiko-team" channel in our Discord for any questions you have. The Taiko team will join the call - we will answer as many as we can.

20/21

We're super proud of this release and thrilled to see what you build next. 🤩

You can read the full alpha-3 testnet launch blog post here: taiko.mirror.xyz/wD7yN8Y5RttbP7…

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