Spiderchain launches final test network, main network to go live in Q1 next year

Botanix Labs has reportedly announced that it is launching a new test network for its Bitcoin Layer2 network, ‘Spiderchain’. The release, called ‘Aragog’, replaces the company's previously unnamed test network and comes alongside several ‘pre-main’ applications, including updated versions of the Bitcoin-backed stablecoin Palladium and the decentralised exchange Blitzy. The team said that Aragog will be the ‘final step’ before the network launches on the mainnet in the first quarter of 2025. In addition to getting an official name, Aragog will also introduce a number of technological innovations. This includes an early experiment with signatures using the Schnorr threshold, a cryptographic technique that ‘joins’ multiple key holders into a single multi-signature address, saving bandwidth and reducing the probability of errors. In addition, while ‘testnet v0’ is run by Botanix Labs using a single node, Aragog will distribute nodes globally.