What's going on with Cardano testnet and Vasil hard fork?

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has continued to refute claims that the Cardano’s testnet is “catastrophically broken,” implying the need to finally move forward with the long-delayed Vasil hard fork.

In a Twitter thread on Aug. 21, Hoskinson shared his frustration concerning some of the videos claiming Cardano’s testnet has a “catastrophic” issue, which stems from an Aug. 19 thread from Cardano ecosystem developer Adam Dean.

The developer claimed that the testnet is “catastrophically broken” due to an undiscovered bug in Cardano’s Node v 1.35.2 that creates incompatible forks — which had managed to slip under the radar of the previous testing.

Following the bug, Cardano released its new client software, Cardano Node v1.35.3, on two separate testnets.

However, Dean noted that because the majority of operators upgraded to v1.35.2 to simulate the Vasil hard fork, v1.35.3 is also “incompatible and incapable of syncing” with the original testnet, and the two testnets are “without a block history.”

Hoskinson has, however, argued that the coding issue found on that node version had been removed in the 1.35.3 update, sharing his frustration that further testing would lead to further delays of the hard fork.

“We of course could as a community delay the launch of Vasil for a few months to retest code that’s already been tested a dozen times and is already running. Is that worth it to all the DApp developers who have been waiting for this update for almost a year now?”

During an “Ask-Me-Anything” on Aug. 19, Hoskinson also said that there’s been an “unfair narrative” floating around Cardano and its testnet issues, which he called “incredibly corrosive and damaging.”

“You can’t conflate a failed testnet with the mainnet because testnets are constructed and destroyed all the time in this industry. That’s their point. [...] They are in no way, in any way harm Cardano itself.”

On Sunday, Hoskinson noted that “the realities of something this large and complex is that one can be easily trapped by the things that aren't working well and forget the things that are.”

He added that one of the results of the Vasil hard fork will be a new governance process and more inclusive structures that will lead to “more useful code” and “faster developments.”

“Moments that give us a chance to change and grow. Let's get Vasil done together and then let's move on to higher ground and fix some of the original sins of the project so Cardano can also grow to its next level.”

Related: Sell the news? Cardano price risks 20% drop despite Vasil hard fork euphoria

The Vasil hard fork has already been delayed several times this year, with the most recent being at the end of July due to issues identified on the testnet. However, Hoskinson said during the AMA that he is optimistic that the Vasil hard fork will ship “imminently.”

“The features are there, they’ve worked, they’ve been tested thoroughly, and there’s a high degree of confidence in them. There’s no reason for it not to get over the finish line imminently.”

Cardano’s ADA token is priced at $0.45 on Monday, having dropped 18.5% over the last week.