From Goerli to Sepolia: Changes in Vaultody’s Supported Ethereum Testnets

Understanding Mainnets and Testnets in Ethereum

Every public blockchain generally exposes at least two types of networks: a production mainnet and one or more testnets. The mainnet is where real value moves. On Ethereum, this is the network where you deploy production smart contracts, launch tokens, run decentralized applications (dApps), and execute real transfers, swaps, and payments in ETH and ERC‑20 tokens. All live digital asset operations handled through your Vaultody vault on Ethereum mainnet directly affect real balances.

Testnets mirror the behavior of the mainnet but use valueless test assets. Their role is to provide a safe environment for developers, QA teams, and protocol integrators to experiment with smart contracts, dApp logic, and integration flows before anything is promoted to production. In Vaultody, Ethereum testnets are exposed in the same familiar way as mainnets, so teams can test MPC wallet behavior and operational flows without taking on financial risk.

Within the Ethereum ecosystem, there is only one Ethereum mainnet, but there have been several testnets over time, including Ropsten, Rinkeby, Goerli, and Sepolia. For the past few years, Goerli and Sepolia have been the most widely used, and the community is now consolidating around Sepolia as Goerli is phased out.

What Is the Goerli Testnet?

The Goerli testnet started as a hackathon project in Berlin in 2018 and was officially launched in 2019. It quickly became one of the preferred public Ethereum test networks because it offered a stable, cross‑client environment for application developers and protocol teams.

Goerli runs on a Proof‑of‑Authority (PoA) consensus model, where a curated set of validators is allowed to produce blocks. This design aimed to provide predictable block production and minimize the kind of instability that can complicate testing, such as frequent chain reorganizations.

Instead of real ETH, Goerli uses Goerli ETH, a testnet‑only asset with no monetary value. Developers obtain Goerli ETH from faucets and use it to deploy contracts, pay gas fees, and simulate user transactions. Because Goerli ETH is not redeemable on mainnet, teams can test aggressively without risking capital.

Over time, Goerli’s architecture, along with its distributed validator set, made it a robust environment even for larger, more complex testing scenarios. However, as Ethereum has evolved and moved fully to Proof‑of‑Stake, the community decided to standardize on newer testnets better aligned with the current mainnet design.

What Is the Sepolia Testnet?

Sepolia is a newer Ethereum testnet introduced in 2021. It is a permissioned Proof‑of‑Stake (PoS) network where a closed set of validators—mainly client and testing teams—run the consensus layer. Operationally, this makes Sepolia feel similar to a managed Proof‑of‑Authority network while still reflecting Ethereum’s modern PoS architecture.

Like Goerli, Sepolia offers a cost‑free testing environment. It uses Sepolia ETH, a test‑only asset that is distributed via faucets. Sepolia ETH is used exclusively for development and QA and has no linkage to mainnet ETH balances.

Compared with Goerli, Sepolia has a few practical advantages:

• Lighter and faster to sync: The network is intentionally lean, so nodes can join and synchronize quickly, which is ideal for CI/CD pipelines and ephemeral infrastructure.
• Lower storage requirements: Sepolia’s chain is smaller, easing operational overhead for developers and infrastructure teams.
• Cross‑client support: It is maintained by core client teams, making it a reliable place to test client behavior and upgrades.
• Permissioned consensus: Controlled validator sets help keep the environment predictable and easier to maintain over the long term.

Why Ethereum Is Moving from Goerli to Sepolia

The Ethereum ecosystem is dynamic, and its testnets evolve alongside protocol upgrades and community needs. Maintaining multiple large public testnets indefinitely creates cost and operational complexity for client teams, node operators, and tool builders.

As part of the broader roadmap and following proposals within the Ethereum community, Goerli is scheduled for deprecation around April 2024. After that point, Goerli is no longer expected to be maintained as an official test network. Developers who still depend on it are encouraged to migrate to Sepolia or other supported testnets.

This consolidation allows client teams to focus resources on a smaller number of up‑to‑date testnets that more accurately represent current mainnet conditions, particularly Ethereum’s Proof‑of‑Stake design.

Why Vaultody Is Migrating from Goerli to Sepolia

Because Vaultody is tightly integrated with Ethereum for institutional MPC custody and wallet infrastructure, its supported testnets must track Ethereum’s official roadmap. Once Goerli support is discontinued at the protocol level, continuing to rely on it would introduce unnecessary risk and fragmentation for users.

For this reason, Vaultody is transitioning Ethereum testnet support from Goerli to Sepolia. Our engineering team is finalizing full Sepolia integration so that clients can continue to:

• Develop and test new workflows before deploying to Ethereum mainnet.
• Validate governance rules, approvals, and signing policies in a live‑like environment.
• Run QA and regression suites against a stable, actively maintained testnet.

After Goerli is deprecated, Vaultody will cease supporting it and focus solely on Sepolia as the primary Ethereum testnet within our platform.

How the Testnet Transition Affects Vaultody Clients

If you are currently using Goerli through Vaultody, the key point is that this transition affects only your testnet resources, not your production holdings.

Testnets are a critical part of Vaultody’s MPC-based wallet architecture. They allow you to rehearse everything you plan to do on mainnet—using test funds—before committing to real transactions. In practice, Vaultody exposes almost the same functionality on testnets as on mainnet, including:

• Creating and managing vaults.
• Generating deposit addresses.
• Submitting and approving transaction requests.
• Configuring webhooks and callbacks.
• Issuing and rotating API keys.
• Testing policy enforcement and signing flows end‑to‑end.

As Goerli is sunset, Vaultody will remove Goerli‑related assets, addresses, and metadata from the platform. These items are purely test artifacts and have no intrinsic value. They are also completely isolated from your Ethereum mainnet accounts and balances.

In other words, deprecation of Goerli does not impact your mainnet ETH or tokens held or managed through Vaultody. You can continue to run all production workflows on Ethereum mainnet exactly as before, while moving your test activities over to Sepolia.

If your team requires guidance on mapping existing Goerli‑based test flows to Sepolia, or you want to confirm how this change intersects with your current integration, you can contact Vaultody’s support or solutions team for a tailored migration plan.

Key Takeaways for Institutions Using Vaultody

• Ethereum is deprecating Goerli and standardizing on Sepolia as a primary public testnet.
• Sepolia is lighter, faster, and more closely aligned with Ethereum’s current PoS mainnet.
• Vaultody is integrating Sepolia so that you can continue to test MPC wallet operations safely.
• Goerli test resources in Vaultody will be removed, but they never held real value.
• Your Ethereum mainnet assets and live operations in Vaultody remain secure and unaffected.

For teams running institutional workflows, the practical action item is to update any environment configuration, pipelines, or documentation that currently reference Goerli and migrate those to Sepolia via Vaultody. Once this is complete, your testing and production paths will again be fully aligned with the broader Ethereum roadmap.