FLOP's public testnet did not open on its working target of Tuesday 3 November 2026. On 8 November FLOP's own operator documentation still lists the testnet as "planned", and the devnet is the only FLOP network running.
Where things stand
FLOP's launch-timeline page (last updated 30 October) gave 3 November as the working target for a public testnet of about 90 days. It called this "a target rather than a fixed date", to be confirmed once devnet onboarding is finished. The testnet status page in the operator docs now says the testnet is "Unavailable until published network identity, artifacts, and admission policy are verified". It adds that no network is open to operators until its genesis, chain spec, bootnodes, public RPC and gateway, supported release and admission authority are published and verified.
Several outlets report that Arthur Hayes, FLOP's founder, posted on 5 November that devnet work was going well and that the testnet date would be settled early in the following week. BitBasic hasn't found that date on an official FLOP page yet.
The devnet meanwhile
According to the timeline page, a first group of outside miners and validators has been joining the private devnet since the week of 13 October, and more were added through the second half of October. FLOP describes the devnet as a disposable network for proving setup that can be reset at any time.
BitBasic's FLOP dashboard shows the devnet running steadily:
- 10 active validators and one in the queue, all in a 10-member finality committee.
- Runtime tzkv-runtime version 1,014,014, with one-second slots.
- Most days filled 99.1% to 99.7% of slots between 4 and 7 November. 5 November was lower at 94.2%.
- The active set rotates every 30 days. The next rotation is due at block 5,184,000, about 23 days away.
What operators should know
FLOP says operators should expect forced software upgrades with short deadlines throughout the testnet, and that keeping up with them counts toward how validators are ranked. At cutover, FLOP plans to select the top 1,000 validators by their testnet performance. There is no cap on miners. Operators who want their machines tested before testnet day should go through the devnet admission process described in the docs.
Only links on FLOP's official list (https://flop.finance/official) are FLOP sources. Treat anything else that claims to be FLOP as unofficial.
