Testnets are not just a sandbox. They’re a proving ground for ideas, assumptions, and infrastructure. They’re where systems are pushed to their limits before they go live. Portal’s second public testnet was designed to do exactly that. Albeit not going live, the process of building and preparing it revealed incredibly valuable insights into scaling, performance, and operational reality.

The testnet v2 was an ambitious design. It followed the unexpectedly high demand of Testnet v1, which caused issues in maintaining the infrastructure. We were victims of our own success. Supporting such a large testing environment with high demand is very difficult with a small team, limited resources, and a strict development pipeline focused on Mainnet as the ultimate goal.

This second testnet was meant to simulate the complexity of running a trust-minimized DEX across multiple chains, including Bitcoin, Lightning Network, Ethereum, Solana, and the Portal-to-Bitcoin Chain. And while internal builds met many of their technical goals, the testnet didn’t manage to reach the public. Persistent infrastructure challenges made it clear that we needed to focus efforts on what truly matters most: launching Mainnet.

The Reality of Running a DEX Testnet at Scale

Testnet v2 was created to reflect real-world usage, and although internal builds were functional, ongoing infrastructure issues prevented us from ever rolling it out to the public. Participation through the Quest platform continued to grow, but actual on-chain testing never reached the community. As demand increased, several pain points became unavoidable.

1. Faucet Abuse and Bot/Sybil Attacks

Within days of activity starting, the public faucet became a target for automated scripts. Bots flooded it with hundreds of thousands of requests per minute. This placed heavy stress on the infrastructure and made it nearly impossible to deliver test funds fairly to our real users. The operations team had to respond continuously, attempting to maintain stability while under siege.

This issue began during Testnet v1, leading to frequent changes in faucet functionality and substantial expenditures on Sepolia ETH. We also broke BTC Signet and eventually had to create our own fork of Bitcoin to regain control over the environment. Throughout the testing phase, more than 500 community members helped manually distribute tokens, and we are super grateful for all of their support.

Testnet v2 was naturally designed with these problems in mind and included new systems intended to prevent faucet abuse. But despite months of adjustments and attempts to improve distribution, we ran out of practically deliverable solutions to stop the exploitation.

2. Fund Distribution Bottlenecks

Unlike traditional testnets using a single asset, Portal’s environment relied on full node infrastructure across five chains. That included running explorers, relayers, proxies, and validation services. The demand for test funds far exceeded our ability to generate and distribute them. Managing this load became a significant operational burden and added further pressure on top of the faucet issues.

3. Infrastructure Overload from Wallet Access

At the height of activity, the system saw more than 900,000 unique wallets interacting per day. While this showed strong interest, it also caused major strain on node stability and throughput; performance degraded, latency increased, and even with redundancy systems and load balancers in place, the infrastructure struggled to maintain uptime and responsiveness.

4. Resource Drain on Mainnet Engineering

Perhaps the most important factor was the hidden cost: time. The ongoing effort required to maintain and troubleshoot the overloaded testnet infrastructure steadily pulled engineers and operators away from critical Mainnet development. Continuing on this path would have delayed Portal’s roadmap, so ultimately it was no longer sustainable.

A Testnet That Delivered Value

While internally Testnet v2 helped us validate our core functionality, the problems outlined above made it clear that a public rollout just wasn’t feasible. The faucet abuse, infrastructure strain, and distribution bottlenecks prevented us from launching the testnet beyond closed testing.

Still, the process revealed three key things:

• Swaps work during closed tests
• We can’t sustain public faucet infrastructure at scale
• We need another solution going forward

These were not failures by any means. They were actually critical lessons that are now shaping the future of Portal. Despite the limitations, testnet v2 gave us confidence in our design and highlighted exactly what needs to change as we move toward Mainnet.

As part of that journey, the next step will be to validate the system in a more real-world environment. This phase will be different from our previous testnets, designed specifically to avoid the issues we faced and to provide meaningful insights without relying on public faucet infrastructure.

Private Test Environment for Our Most Dedicated Members

With those insights in hand, we are now launching a private, unincentivized testnet for dedicated community members and top supporters. This new version of the testnet is more focused, more controlled, and more aligned with the needs of developers and integrators.

What’s different?

• Access via invitations
  Testnet v3 introduces a gated model, allowing us to onboard users gradually while protecting against bot-driven abuse.
• Developer-first tooling
  The environment is designed to support integration testing, dev workflows, and early deployment feedback. It is no longer simply a public playground.
• Optimized infrastructure
  Resources are now scoped in a way that simulates production conditions without exhausting the teams responsible for Mainnet readiness.

This is not a step backward, it’s an intentional restructuring. This now allows us to focus on what matters most, while still giving our partners and early adopters the tools they need to build, test, and collaborate.

The Road to Mainnet

Mainnet remains the top priority. Every improvement, every adjustment, every strategic choice is made with that goal in mind. This new phase is a leaner and smarter iteration, giving us the space to build with confidence while avoiding the distractions and risks of uncontrolled public testing.

We are thankful to absolutely everyone who participated in our earlier testnets. Your feedback and stress-testing has greatly helped shape the evolution of Portal. We’re not slowing down, we’re sharpening our focus.

Now, we build.

About Portal to Bitcoin

Portal to Bitcoin, formerly known as Portal DeFi, is a trust-minimized protocol designed for fast, secure atomic swaps between Bitcoin and other blockchain assets. Powered by BitScaler, Portal enables non-custodial trading across multiple blockchains without relying on intermediaries. With backing from Coinbase Ventures, OKX Ventures, and Arrington Capital, Portal ensures user funds are always secure without the need for bridging or wrapping, focusing on providing deep Bitcoin liquidity and enhancing trading efficiency.

For more information, visit Portal to Bitcoin
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