Cardano Testnet “Catastrophically” Broken? Hoskinson Replies

There has been a lot of controversy in the Cardano community as the network approaches a major milestone. This blockchain has been preparing to deploy an update via a Hard Fork Combinator (HFC) event called “Vasil”, but there has been some disagreement between the community and the lead developer, Input Output Global (IOG).

“Vasil” will introduce network performance on Cardano that is set to improve its ecosystem and potentially expand its decentralized finance (DeFi) sector. However, the HFC event has been pushed back on several occasions causing frustration in some sectors of the community.

IOG’s CEO and Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson asked stakepool operators (SPOs) to upgrade to a new version of this network’s client v1.35.3. This request prompted two developers and influential community members, Adam Dean and Andrew Westberg, to publicly expressed their disagreement with Hoskinson.

Westberg took to Twitter and claimed the Cardano founder is “not on the same as his DevOps and test teams”. The developer and SPO believe version 1.35.3 require more testing. Thus, he asked the community the following:

Run 1.35.3 on the preview network. Run either 1.34.1 or 1.35.3 on the preprod network. Wait until they hardfork successfully and we verify there are no issues. THEN we can upgrade mainnet.

Adam Dean shared a similar sentiment claiming version 1.35.3 on the testnet is “catastrophically” broken as a result of a bug. The team at IOG, according to the developer, has been moving back and forth with this version of the Cardano client.

At what point, SPOs were told that 1.35.3 was “tested and ready for the Vasil Hard Fork”, but the community kept on discovering “bugs”. In that sense, Dean believes the process of deploying “Vasil” on mainnet is being “rushed”. Dean added:

Testnet is still broken, due to the majority of operators having upgraded to 1.35.2 on testnet to simulate a Vasil HFC event there, 1.35.3 is now incompatible and incapable of syncing the chain, legacy installations are still on one fork or another…

The “Kids Are Grown Up”, Cardano Founder Says

The events around the Vasil HFC event might have endangered the entire Cardano blockchain, Dean said. The developer believes that the project came close to a potentially apocalyptic event, adding that “if there were a nuclear clock for Cardano, we got perilously close to hitting midnight”.

Earlier today, Hoskinson replied to the concerns expressed by a sector of the ADA community. He classified the allegations about “rushing” v 1.35.3 as “bizarre and alarmist”.

The Cardano founder believes the code has been “thoroughly tested for months” in a process that included community members and SPOs. In that sense, any issues with the code have been “removed”. Hoskinson wondered:

We of course could as a community delay the launch of Vasil for a few months to retest code that’s already been tested a dozen times and is already running. Is that worth it to all the DApp developers who have been waiting for this update for almost a year now?

However, Hoskinson delegated the decision about implementing v 1.35.3 to the community. The current controversy was seen as a sign that users have more power and a voice about the changes on this blockchain, but IOG’s CEO expressed frustration with the process.

You’re the SPOs, you ultimately decide. I’m seriously tired of taking the blame on both sides. Cardano is decentralized. The people running the network ultimately decide upgrades not me.

— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) August 19, 2022