The first public testnet for =nil; protocol, an Ethereum layer-2 that uses zero-knowledge sharding, is now live.

=nil; Foundation announced the testnet v1 on Oct. 30, noting the launch as another milestone as the Ethereum (ETH) L2 protocol moves closer to its mainnet.

The testnet follows the platform’s earlier devnet release, which allowed developers to stress-test the project’s proof of concept. With the public launch of =nil; Testnet v1, the zkRollup aims to gather valuable feedback from a wider group of users.

For this release, the focus is on putting development experience improvements to user testing.

An expanded ecosystem of decentralized applications is now accessible as developers test zkSharding. Testnet v1 offers the public an opportunity to help identify potential bugs as various applications undergo stress testing. Developers will also use the testnet to work on tooling.

The =nil; Foundation introduced the Ethereum zkRollup in November 2023, with the L2 aimed at scaling the Ethereum network to over 60,000 transactions per second via zkSharding.

zkSharding combines zero-knowledge Rollup with sharding, enabling parallel transaction processing. This works while the network maintains a shared state, which means it’s possible to scale Ethereum without the typical trade-offs that developers experience with modularity.

Issues that =nil;’s zkSharding solution helps to address include liquidity and security fragmentation, composability with Ethereum’s mainnet and data transparency and verifiability.

The testnet brings the layer-2 protocol closer to its roadmap goal of launching the mainnet in Q4 2025.

After the testnet v1, =nil; will move to the v2 and v3 phases in Q2 and Q3, 2025 respectively. zkEVM, performance testing and stability and UX are the key targets before mainnet launch.