Somnia’s Shannon Testnet is Bringing Internet Scale to Web3

Somnia’s Testnet, Shannon, is now live, bringing us one step closer to our dream of a fully on-chain world. Named after Claude Elwood Shannon, the father of information theory, Shannon Testnet is designed to handle real-world demand, support mass consumer applications, and give developers a live environment to test next-generation blockchain use cases.

Following Somnia’s record-breaking DevNet performance of 1 million+ TPS, sub-second finality, and sub-cent transaction fees, Shannon Testnet is here to push blockchain scalability even further. During DevNet testing, Somnia processed over 3.6 million transactions across more than 300,000 unique addresses, proving its ability to handle real-world demand. Shannon Testnet is designed to test congestion resistance and give developers the infrastructure to deploy applications at a scale never before possible.

Pushing Blockchain Beyond Limits

Many blockchains have promised high speeds, but most struggle when faced with real-world congestion. Shannon Testnet is built for scale, designed to test Somnia’s architecture under high demand, heavy transaction loads, and real developer deployment.

What’s new on Testnet:

Greater Decentralization – Multiple third-party validators are now running, with staking protocols live to enhance security and resilience.
Increased Stability – No more state wipes, allowing developers to build confidently without needing to redeploy or replay state.
Enhanced Developer Readiness – The necessary infrastructure is fully in place for building and testing applications.
Ecosystem Growth – More projects will be announced and onboarded to drive real adoption and testnet activity.

Infrastructure Partners

Somnia’s Testnet is fully equipped with the infrastructure that developers need to build and scale their applications. We have integrated key infrastructure partners, ensuring seamless development and deployment.

With the upcoming robust ecosystem in place, developers can immediately start building without needing to wait for additional integrations.

The Technology Powering Somnia

Somnia’s Shannon Testnet is powered by several groundbreaking innovations, making it the most advanced blockchain testing environment available today.

MultiStream Consensus

Somnia’s MultiStream Consensus enables parallel transaction execution, decoupling data production from validation. This ensures that even at peak transaction volumes, the network remains fast, efficient, and decentralized.

Other Key Innovations Driving Shannon Testnet

Accelerated Sequential Execution – Converts EVM bytecode into highly optimized native code for predictable, high-speed execution.
IceDB (Deterministic Database) – Nanosecond-level read/write speeds enable seamless transaction processing and consistent finalization times.
Advanced Compression Techniques – Reduces bandwidth requirements, allowing millions of transactions per second to be processed efficiently.

Together, these technologies allow developers to build and scale applications that were previously impossible on blockchain.

What Can Developers Build on Shannon Testnet?

With Somnia’s high speed and low-cost transactions, developers can explore entirely new categories of blockchain applications, such as:

🕹 Fully On-Chain Games – Real-time mechanics, instant transactions, and decentralized game economies without reliance on centralized servers.
📈 Scalable DeFi Protocols – High-frequency trading, instant swaps, and low-cost decentralized financial applications.
🔮 Reactive Applications – Smart contracts that can instantly respond to on-chain events and real-world data—enabling real-time gaming, dynamic marketplaces, and automated financial services.
🌍 Social Platforms and Metaverses – Large-scale virtual worlds and interactive digital economies that scale to millions of users.

What’s Next?

The launch of Shannon Testnet marks a major milestone on the road to Somnia’s mainnet launch. Over the coming months, developers will deploy applications, optimize performance, and stress-test the network, while Somnia continues refining its infrastructure for full-scale adoption.

Start Building on Shannon Testnet Today!

🔗 Access Shannon Testnet to start deploying your application or just test out what the network has to offer!

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