Hello everyone! I wanted to share this post with everyone to let you know that the Friends and Family Testnet for Shelley Haskell is rolling out shortly. Along with the team at IOHK, we have just started inviting our first pioneers and they’ll be getting fully briefed on Monday.
I know there’s been some concern in the community about which stake pools get an invite, and this is something we’re especially sensitive to in a project that is built around decentralization, open-source, and community ownership of the technology. With this in mind, we wanted to make a few things clear.
- Access to this stage of the testnet release is being provided based on a specific set of criteria. Both IOHK and the Foundation have worked together to identify these criteria and select pioneer pools based on them. While we won’t share our full selection criteria here, some of the ones we used include skill with Linux, DevOps experience, geographical spread, and even cultural background to make sure we get a diverse set of perspectives for our earliest stage of feedback.
- The Friends and Family Testnet Phase will be as short as we can make it before we expand it to a broader audience. The earliest phase of Testnet access is limited not because we want access to be exclusive, but because the kind of intensive feedback session and relationship-building we’re doing in order to get the feedback we need is a demanding process, both for our volunteers and for our development team. As the initial rounds of feedback are completed and we iron out any possible issues, we will be rapidly expanding access to the testnet.
- Our Friends and Family Testnet group has specific expectations set on them. Each is asked to sign a charter we put together to make the expectations of their commitment explicitly clear. Each member of the group specifically commits to keeping the wider community informed on the status of the project, as well as committing to mentoring and onboarding a minimum of 2 other pool operators to become part of the testnet program as we expand it.
The ITN has shown what a vibrant and talented stake pool community we have out there. This initial stage is a critical part of opening up the testnet program - as soon as possible - for the whole community. We appreciate your patience in these early phases. We’re relentlessly closing in on our final release, and we can’t wait to share everything with everyone.
Casey Monroe
Community Engagement & Strategy Lead
Cardano Foundation