Hard Fork 14 Testnet

Hard Fork 14 is coming. Before it goes live on mainnet, we need your help testing it on testnet. Testnet is a separate, isolated network: the coins have no value and nothing you do there touches the real chain. It is the safest place to find problems before the fork.

Hard Fork 14 brings smaller, more efficient transactions (CLSAG signatures and Bulletproofs+), stronger privacy through a larger anonymity set, and an evolved fair-mining algorithm (CryptoNight-Adaptive v7) that keeps mining competitive on ordinary CPUs.

A multi-step process

Hard Fork 14 is a large upgrade with several separate changes, so we are not testing it all at once. Rushing everything into a single testnet would make it impossible to tell which change caused a problem if something breaks. Instead, we are running several testnets, before a final combined run.

  • Round 1: new transactions and mining algorithm. Tests CLSAG signatures, Bulletproofs+, and CryptoNight-Adaptive v7 together (PR #117).
  • Round 2: larger ring size. Coming as a separate change, not yet built. It will be tested on its own.
  • …
  • Final round: everything combined. A last run with all changes active together, matching exactly what will go live on mainnet.

    • We will announce each round as it opens, and this page will be updated as we progress. There is no fixed deadline. We move to the next step only when the current one is proven stable.

    Right now we are on Round 1. Testnet starts fresh from block 0 and activates Hard Fork 14 at block 1000. Difficulty starts at the floor, so mining with a single CPU core is enough to help build the chain, cross the fork, and send transactions.

    Note: multisig is disabled in this release, and Ledger hardware wallet support is not available for Hard Fork 14. If you rely on either, now is the time to yell very loudly.

    1. Download the testnet build

    Grab the build for your platform. Keep it separate from your mainnet install.

    Windows64-bit Linuxx86_64 macOSIntel (x64) macOSApple Silicon Android(ARMv8)

    Other platforms (ARMv7 / ARMv8, FreeBSD, iOS, 32-bit) are available from the GitHub build below.

    2. Prefer source or other platforms?

    All of the Round 1 changes live in pull request #117. You can review the code, build it yourself, or download the per-platform CI artifacts from the latest successful run linked in that PR.

    Ran the HF13 testnet before? Delete your old testnet data first.

    This is a brand new testnet that starts from block 0, so leftover HF13 testnet chain data will conflict with it and cause sync errors. Delete the testnet folder inside your Nerva data directory before starting the daemon:

    • Windows: C:\ProgramData\nerva\testnet
    • Linux / macOS: ~/.nerva/testnet

    This only affects testnet. Your mainnet chain (in the parent nerva folder) is not touched.

    3. Run a testnet node

    Start the daemon with the --testnet flag. It uses its own data directory and ports, so it will not touch your mainnet node.

    nervad --testnet

    If the node has trouble finding peers, add a known testnet node:

    nervad --testnet --add-priority-node 74.208.52.101:18565

    4. Create a testnet wallet

    Open the CLI wallet in testnet mode and create a new wallet when prompted. It will connect to your local testnet daemon.

    nerva-wallet-cli --testnet

    5. Mine to build the chain and cross the fork

    Because testnet starts fresh from block 0, difficulty is very low and a single CPU core is plenty to mine blocks quickly. Mining is how the chain grows, how you get test coins, and how we reach and cross Hard Fork 14 at block 1000. In the daemon console:

    start_mining <your_testnet_address> 1

    Let it run past block 1000, then confirm the daemon keeps accepting and producing blocks on the new algorithm.

    What to test (Round 1)

    • Mine with a single CPU core to help build the chain from block 0
    • Confirm blocks keep coming both before and after Hard Fork 14 (block 1000)
    • Send transfers between testnet wallets, with single and multiple recipients
    • Create a wallet and restore a wallet from seed, including a rescan across the fork
    • Confirm a fresh node syncs cleanly from block 0 all the way past the fork
    • Try it on different operating systems and hardware

    If anything breaks, a crash, a stuck sync, a rejected block, or a wallet error, that is exactly what we want to hear about.

    How to report results

    Share results, logs, and issues in the Nerva Discord, or comment directly on PR #117.

    When reporting a problem, please include:

    • Your operating system and hardware
    • The build or commit you are running
    • The daemon log if the node hit an error

    Thank you for helping test Hard Fork 14. Every node and every platform we cover makes the mainnet fork safer.