The Protocol: Meet Hoodi, Ethereum’s New Testnet

Welcome to The Protocol, CoinDesk's weekly wrap-up of the most important stories in cryptocurrency tech development. I'm Margaux Nijkerk, CoinDesk’s Ethereum Reporter.
In this issue:
Hello, Hoodi: Ethereum Welcomes a New TestnetMicrosoft Raises Alarm of Malware Targeting Coinbase, MetaMask WalletsHalliday Raises $20M for AI Protocol to Eliminate Writing Smart Contracts for DeFiSam Altman's World Network and Razer Want to Defeat Gaming's Bot Problem
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Network news
HELLO, HOODI: ETHEREUM WELCOMES A NEW TESTNET: Ethereum developers launched a new test network, Hoodi, this week that will be used to carry out the blockchain's upcoming “Pectra” upgrade. Pectra will go live on Hoodi on March 26, and if all goes well, the long-awaited upgrade will proceed to Ethereum's mainnet roughly 30 days later, according to the network's core developers. Hoodi was created following faulty Pectra tests on Ethereum’s other testnets, Holesky and Sepolia, which failed to finalize properly due to problems with how they were configured. Test networks like Holesky, Sepolia, and Hoodi aim to mimic the main Ethereum network — allowing developers the opportunity to test out code changes or major upgrades like Pectra in a low-stakes environment before deploying them to the mainnet. — Margaux Nijkerk