Cosmos ecosystem built Ethereum Virtual Machine compatible Layer-1 blockchain network Berachain announced the launch of its public testnet named Artio. According to the announcement, about 50 teams successfully completed the necessary testing stages within a month on the previous private testnet, which was hosted under various confidentiality agreements with partners.
Berachain Testnet Now Available
According to the statement made by the Berachain team, there are more than 30 local teams working on Berachain, and over 100 teams from other networks, including significant brands like Pendle, Redacted, Sudoswap, and Abracadabra, plan to participate in the testnet and mainnet.
With the final launch expected towards the end of this year, Berachain will also be supported by storage solutions, cross-chain messaging and bridging protocols, and data availability solutions. The Berachain mainnet is planned to be released to users in the second quarter of this year.
Following the mainnet launch, protocols that pass governance votes will be able to integrate their smart contracts into Berachain’s liquidity pool, attracting liquidity at lower costs and increasing capital efficiency. The team stated the following on the matter:
“Cosmos validators have the opportunity to attract new capital and delegates from the EVM world, which is typically a major constraint for growth in the Cosmos ecosystem.”
Berachain and Its Blockchain Journey
Berachain’s bear-themed crypto project is led by a group of founders with pseudonyms such as Homme Bera, Dev Bear, Papa Bear, and Smokey the Bera. The team, currently consisting of 30 members, has experience from previous projects like Sui, Polygon, Mantle, Coinbase, Chainlink, and Aave. Berachain, which has been under development since the end of 2021, entered the blockchain sector following the NFT project “Bong Bears” and other related collections by the founding partners.
In April last year, Smokey the Bera successfully raised $42 million in a private funding round led by Polychain Capital. Initially, the public testnet and potentially the mainnet were expected to launch in 2023. Participants in the funding round included Hack VC, Shima Capital, Robot Ventures, and Goldentree Asset Management.
Bera Smokey stated that Berachain began raising funds for the investment round shortly after the cryptocurrency exchange FTX filed for bankruptcy in November 2022, and the process was concluded shortly thereafter.
