Shardeum, an autoscaling layer-1 blockchain ecosystem, announces the launch of Stage 3 of its Incentivized Testnet (ITN), Atomium, which commenced on October 1st, 2024. ITN Stage 3 will continue to encourage community engagement, prompting users to test the network for bugs, vulnerabilities, and performance issues to further fortify the network ahead of the Mainnet launch.

This announcement follows the successful completion of the first two stages of ITN, which saw participation from over 540,000 users, including 11,000+ validators, and facilitated more than 5 million transactions. ITN Stage 3 will also operate in tandem with Shardeum’s second bug bounty program, further stress-testing their network for any final bugs and vulnerabilities ahead of Mainnet.

Stage 3 is expected to run for 3 to 4 weeks, longer than the previous stages, reflecting the Testnet’s advanced maturity. Community participation and engagement have helped Shardeum fine-tune and further stabilize the network.

The Stage 3 quest campaign will allow users to extensively stress test a broader range of on-chain activities and validator functionalities. In return, they can potentially earn rewards including SHM airdrops, XP, NFTs, and more.

Chris Chabot, Head of Developer Relations at Shardeum states: “This is a remarkable milestone, and we’re excited to see Mainnet on the horizon. Our developers and the entire team at Shardeum have dedicated countless hours to bringing every step of our roadmap to life, and we couldn’t be more grateful for their hard work. As we push forward toward Mainnet, we look forward to sharing an exciting update once ITN Stage 3 is complete.”

ITN Stage 3 will include referral programs, social tasks, rewards challenges, and voting and quiz games to ensure maximum community engagement. Please note that rewards can only be earned through quest tasks listed on the official testnet campaign page.