A Farewell to the Past, a Horizon Full of Promise
Today was a bittersweet affair. We ended the incentivized phase of the testnet on Gemini 3. Bitter because we say a goodbye to our last and longest incentivized testnet but also sweet as it’s one of the necessary steps to us delivering Mainnet Phase 1. Specifically, it unblocks us for finalizing tokenomics which will be coming soon and is another item we can check off our todo list.
The end was marked by Nazar as usual with a system.remark extrinsic in block 3,338,258 live on a community call held on 18th September 2024. Emil delivered a wonderful summary of the achievements realized on Gemini 3 and we all gave a salute to the cherished memories made and community built around the initiative.
Looking forward, we have a number of exciting ways our community can remain engaged and fill the gap between now and mainnet. We have the Genesis Seed Data in full swing and are planning a number of fun activities with exclusive merch up for grabs and even a few surprises to recognize genesis farmers at launch and beyond. There’s opportunities to participate in the testnet rewards audit once we have the rewards checker built out in Astral and we’ll need help with testing mainnet launch dress rehearsals.
The Gemini 3h testnet will stay up as long as there are farmers participating. This gives everyone the ideal opportunity to optimize their farming setups for the impending Space Race to activate mainnet rewards which is now just over the horizon.
I was moved by Emil’s segment on the call so would like to honor it here for future posterity. WARNING: it’s a bit long but so was Gemini 3 
It’s well worth the read if you joined us on this incredible odyssey.
Gemini 3 Roundup
As we stand on the verge of an exciting new chapter, it’s time to reflect on the remarkable adventure we’ve all shared together. The path from our early testnets to where we are today has been filled with challenges, triumphs, and countless moments that have shaped the Autonomys Network into what it is. Let’s take a walk down memory lane and celebrate the milestones that have brought us to this pivotal moment.
The Early Days: Gemini 2
Our journey began with the incredible success of Gemini 2, a testnet that showcased the potential of Autonomys:
- Over 27,000 live nodes across 60 countries
- An impressive 1.3 pebibytes of storage pledged to the network
This milestone set the stage for what would come next – the Gemini 3 series.
Gemini 3: The Evolution Begins
Gemini 3 started as a non-incentivized testnet that took us into uncharted territory, pushing the boundaries of what our protocol could achieve.
Gemini 3c (March 2023)
After extensive internal testing, we launched Gemini 3c, introducing:
- Consensus v2.2 and later v2.3, codenamed Dilithium
- Distributed Storage Network (DSN) v2, allowing farmers to sync data from each other—a significant milestone in decentralization
Gemini 3d (Late April 2023)
This iteration brought groundbreaking updates:
- Significant overhaul of Subspace Archiving, aligning it with Dilithium specifications
- Implementation of KZG commitments and erasure coding for precise historical data recovery
- Introduction of Domains and Cross-Domain Messaging, enabling application-specific blockchains to be anchored into and validated by the Autonomys Network
Gemini 3e (July 2023)
Focused on enhancing the farmer experience, Gemini 3e brought:
- Improved sync times for faster network synchronization
- Block propagation speed enhancements
- Networking improvements resolving overload issues for certain routers
Gemini 3f (Late August 2023)
Marking the beginning of the incentivized testnets, Gemini 3f introduced:
- DSN syncing enabled by default
- Farmer plot resizing for more flexibility
- EVM domain runtime for broader dApp support
- Sector expiry and replotting to ensure ongoing participation and decentralization
Incentivized rewards were set to grow at 0.1% of the total token supply each week.
Gemini 3g (November 2023)
This phase kicked off Stake Wars and brought:
- Enhanced staking mechanisms for better scalability
- Performance optimizations leading to faster block times and reduced latency
- Enhanced fraud proofs
Gemini 3h (January 2024 - Present)
Our final and longest testnet before mainnet, Gemini 3h introduced:
- A more complete implementation of fraud proofs for enhanced security
- Critical DSN fixes to improve data integrity and syncing
- Staking protocol improvements for greater scalability
- Dynamic Rewards Issuance for fees and rewards, finalizing our tokenomics
- The Mini Space Race, a dress rehearsal for mainnet
- Massively improved node sync times with Snap Sync
- Introduction of GPU plotting
- Many other UX improvements informed by our wonderful community
Incredible Milestones
Throughout this journey, we’ve achieved:
- Over 10,000 active nodes on Gemini 3h
- More than 150 pebibytes of storage pledged to the network
- Introduction of the Farming Cluster which gave farmers much greater composability
- The launch of our new low-barrier farming software, Space Acres
- Countless Farmer Office Hours, answering hundreds of community questions
Farewell, Gemini 3h
Today, we say goodbye to Gemini 3h, our final incentivized testnet. It’s been a journey filled with growth, learning, and unbreakable community spirit. This testnet has shaped the future of our network and the incredible farming community that has stood by us every step of the way.
Looking Ahead
As we bid farewell to Gemini 3h, we look forward to the dawn of a new era: Autonomys Mainnet. The foundations we’ve built together during these testnet phases will serve as the bedrock for a revolutionary decentralized storage and computation network.
Thank you all for being part of this incredible journey. Together, we’ve built something extraordinary, and the best is yet to come.
Onward to Mainnet!
The Autonomys Team