2026 06 15 Testnet Restart

Edit

As of June 15, 2026 21:00 UTC Testnet is back online. The instructions below are no longer relevant. Nodes that haven't yet joined the cluster will need to update their shred version, download a snapshot, and start normally:

--expected-shred-version 1516 \

Summary

As previously announced on Discord, Testnet was intentionally halted on June 15, 2026 around 10:00 UTC as part of routine stabilization process. The following instructions are provided to operators in order to participate in the cluster restart.

Operator Instructions

Optional Configuration

For convenience, these environment variables can be configured for use in subsequent commands. The paths should match what is configured for your validator. Note that if unspecified, snapshots will be read from and written to the ledger directory.

export LEDGER_DIR=<your-ledger-path>
export SNAPSHOTS_DIR=<your-snapshots-path>

Step 0: Update to the latest software version

The latest recommended software versions are as follows:

• Agave: v4.1.0-rc.0
• Frankendancer: v0.1002.40103

Step 1: Stop the validator process if you have not already done so

Step 2: Verify latest optimistically confirmed slot

Run the following command to check your node’s latest optimistically confirmed slot:

agave-ledger-tool blockstore latest-optimistic-slots \
--ledger $LEDGER_DIR \
--exclude-vote-only-slots

The expected output is:

Slot: 415524280
Bank hash: 4Ao99roVzaBoqp2U3bqET9Arh4ACn1Jwf6GVuwpXQDp5

Step 3: Create restart snapshot

Run the following command to create a snapshot with several activated feature gate accounts removed:

agave-ledger-tool create-snapshot \
--ledger $LEDGER_DIR \
--snapshots $SNAPSHOTS_DIR \
--deactivate-feature-gate \
  AnAP9zPV4KL7czAPQbFhpDKV2tx7g4UGNbK9wvXwjaRo \
  6aHuNsUmwSzCEMjrBzBCYaxHAyAcQBjVES92JigHBDuC \
  B8JJXCy5amZyWG9r7EnUYLwzXSXTxG7GZ1qZ1qggo83g \
  YbbRLkvenrocjGPGyoQE4wjnvYzTgfsk38NFmcYK7a5 \
  s512oDwgx8hjMnaQjXfqqrZroVj4HvC6TkN3iSSWXCh \
  Eg7tXEwMZzS98xaZ1YHUbdRHsaYZiCsSaR6sKgxreoaj \
--enable-capitalization-change \
--hard-fork 415524281 \
-- 415524280 $SNAPSHOTS_DIR

Step 4: Verify created snapshot

The output from the previous step should include the following at (or near) the end:

Successfully created snapshot for slot ...
Capitalization change: ...
Shred version: ...

The values should match the following

Slot: 415524281
Hash: 14Ev1zNXpm95UHYYbACwao8Xt4W9ziQ2PVL64iusnGg1
Shred version: 1516

Step 5: Update validator configuration

Perform the following client specific configuration

Agave

Add these arguments to your validator startup script:

--wait-for-supermajority 415524281 \
--expected-shred-version 1516 \
--expected-bank-hash 14Ev1zNXpm95UHYYbACwao8Xt4W9ziQ2PVL64iusnGg1 \

Frankendancer

Add these parameters into [consensus] section of the configuration file:

expected_shred_version = 1516
wait_for_supermajority_at_slot = 415524281
expected_bank_hash = "14Ev1zNXpm95UHYYbACwao8Xt4W9ziQ2PVL64iusnGg1"

Step 6: Restart validator and wait for supermajority

The restarted validator will load the snapshot for slot 415524281 and wait for 80% of stake to come online before resuming normal block production/validation.

If running Agave, look for the following periodic log message to confirm the node is waiting:

Waiting for 80% of activated stake at slot 415524281 to be in gossip...

Stake participation can be tracked by running the following command:

agave-validator --ledger $LEDGER_DIR monitor