🧪 Testnet Phase #2 – Preview Recap (Starts This Weekend – Jan 17)

We're wrapping prep for Testnet Phase #2, which kicks off this weekend (Jan 17). Most docs + infra are now in semi-final shape, and all environments are wired for the next round of testing:
- Testnet-0 — Arbitrum Sepolia (L2)
- Testnet-1 — COR L3 via RaaS
- Testnet-1a — Self-managed COR L3 (comparison target)
- Testnet-1b — Self-managed COR L3 (internal dev environment)

Phase #2 Focus
🔹 Validator v2/v3 (PoI + PoUW)
Tighten quantitative + qualitative scoring so validators are more deterministic, less “flaky,” and better aligned with the rubric.

🔹 Validator Engine – Ollama + Embeddings
Trial Ollama judge models + multiple embedding variants so validators run well on mixed hardware (CPU/GPU) with stable scores.

🔹 QuantitativeStats / QualitativeStats
Grow calibration datasets + tracking so we can tune thresholds, spot drift, and reduce false positives/negatives across domains.

🔹 Redundancy & Trust Stability
Stress multi-run / multi-miner redundancy and aggregation logic to keep trust stable under partial failures or disagreement.

🔹 Router Surfaces – /delegate & /validate
Exercise agent-facing flows, policy hints, multi-run delegation, and validation-heavy workloads to harden these endpoints.

🔹 Oracle & Internal Service Reliability
Verify router APIs, indexers, and dashboard feeds stay fresh + consistent under sustained load and recovery scenarios.

🔹 Infra Redundancy (RPC / Failover / Backups)
Add and test multiple RPC endpoints, validator backups, and ops playbooks so the network survives infra hiccups gracefully.

🔹 Gas Optimization & Runtime Tuning
Profile cortensord + L2 contracts (SessionQueueValidation, SessionPayment, validator storage) and trim gas + runtime overhead.

🔹 Dashboard – Trust Observability
Expose real-time PoI/PoUW metrics, validator health, and endpoint status so operators can actually see trust behavior.

🔹 L3 Comparison – Self-Managed vs RaaS
Run apple-to-apple tests on Testnet-1 (RaaS) vs Testnet-1a (self-managed) to measure performance, reliability, and ops tradeoffs.

(Testnet-1b is internal-only and will be used for parallel dev validation.)
🔹 Light MCP Integration (Nice-to-Have)
Experiment with MCP-style component assignment so the router starts behaving like an agent execution surface (without full protocol rollout yet).

🔹 Incentives & Pricing
- Rewards: moving toward base reward + level bonus, with role count acting more as a capacity/seniority signal than a separate bonus
- Dynamic pricing: SessionPaymentTable is live across all testnets; fees can factor in SLA, model class, execution depth, validator depth once we flip it on during Phase #2 → Phase #3

🔹 Docs (semi-final, only small tweaks expected)
Phase #2 overview & testing focus: https://docs.cortensor.network/community-and-ecosystem/community-testing/testnet-phase-2#testing-focus
Phase #2 rewards: https://docs.cortensor.network/community-and-ecosystem/community-testing/testnet-phase-2#rewards

Next step: final small adjustments this week, then we’ll share the official Phase #2 start announcement.

https://x.com/cortensor/status/2011029888518832240

https://farcaster.xyz/cortensor/0xb0237460