Hedera Cancels Nov. 4 Testnet Upgrade to v0.79 Without New Date

Hedera canceled a planned Nov. 4 upgrade of its developer testnet to v0.79, leaving developers without a replacement date to test the next software version before a mainnet release.

The work had been scheduled for 1 p.m. ET (18:00 UTC) and was expected to take about 40 minutes. Hedera posted the cancellation Nov. 2 at 3:02 p.m. ET (20:02 UTC). It gave no reason and did not announce a new date.

Developers use Hedera’s testnet and test HBAR to check applications before deploying them on mainnet, where transactions use real HBAR. Hedera generally puts new software on testnet before mainnet. Its network status showed testnet running v0.78.0 and mainnet running v0.78.2 when checked Nov. 4. The cancellation notice did not set a v0.79 mainnet date or describe what that release would contain.

Hedera completed its v0.78.0 testnet upgrade Oct. 8 and upgraded mainnet to v0.78.2 on Oct. 28.

Hedera (HBAR), the network’s native token, fell 8.5% between matched UTC daily closes, from $0.075980 on Oct. 27 to $0.069536 on Nov. 3. HBAR had already closed at $0.068907 on Oct. 29, before Hedera announced the cancellation. The price record does not establish that the testnet decision caused the weekly decline.