The Bittensor Testnet is built to verify incoming changes and features made by developers. The block explorer can be reached here.

To run your Neuron or Validator on the test network, users can simply add the following flag to the Neuron or Validator calls:

1--subtensor.chain_endpoint wss://test.finney.opentensor.ai:443

This will point the system towards the testnet blockchain. You can also run a local version of the test network by in Subtensor by modifying --chain flag to use the test network spec file --chain raw_spec_testfinney.json:

1./node-subtensor --chain test_finney --rpc-external --rpc-cors all --ws-external --no-mdns --sync warp --bootnodes /ip4/192.81.212.20/tcp/30333/p2p/12D3KooWQawexXodtsPEymJUX1X2eKzjNq6s8MvzEWtKwJ6mLmzy

The consensus mechanism, validation, and mining are all identical between the test net and the main net, with the only exception being that there is no Tao issued to Neurons (meaning emissions are 0).