Retiring the Piccadilly Testnet: A Milestone in Autonity’s Journey
Autonity has officially retired the Piccadilly Testnet, marking the end of a pivotal chapter in the protocol’s development.
Since its launch, Piccadilly served as a proving ground for Autonity’s infrastructure, supporting experimentation, validator growth, and real-world stress testing of the Autonomous Futures Protocol (AFP). Most notably, it hosted the Piccadilly Circus Games Competition (PCGC), and the Piccadilly Tiber Challenge (PTC) a series of events that brought together participants to validate the protocol under live conditions.
📖 For those who want to revisit these milestones, see our original PCGC announcement and PCGC Round 6 summary and the Tiber Conclusion writeup.
What The Piccadilly Testnet Achieved
The Piccadilly Testnet provided the foundation for some of Autonity’s most important breakthroughs:
Validator Community Growth Piccadilly allowed Autonity to establish and expand its validator set, onboarding independent operators who tested core consensus and governance mechanisms.
PCGC Games Competition Across multiple rounds, the PCGC tested validator performance, coordination, and resilience under realistic conditions. These competitions gave valuable feedback that informed later protocol updates.
Feature Testing and Iteration Many of the functionalities now live on Autonity Mainnet were first validated in Piccadilly—ranging from consensus parameters to network economics and governance flows.
Stress Testing in Public By running real competitions with external participants, Piccadilly demonstrated how Autonity infrastructure performs under live and unpredictable conditions.
In many ways, Piccadilly was more than a testnet—it was the environment where Autonity’s theoretical designs became operational reality.
✅ Both Autonity Mainnet and the Bakerloo Testnet remain fully operational and supported.
What’s Next:
The retirement of Piccadilly does not mark an end, but a transition. Autonity now runs two supported networks:
Autonity Mainnet – the settlement layer for autonomous futures markets, where validated features from Piccadilly are live.
Bakerloo Testnet – the active test environment for ongoing experimentation and protocol updates.
Together, these networks carry forward the lessons learned from Piccadilly while ensuring Autonity remains robust, forward-looking, and open to innovation.
Closing Reflections:
Piccadilly played an outsized role in shaping Autonity’s trajectory. It was the home of the PCGC, the testbed for new features, and the network that transformed theory into practice. Its retirement is both a conclusion and a signal of progress: Autonity has matured beyond the stage Piccadilly was built to serve.
Autonity acknowledges and thanks all participants—validators, developers, and community members—who made Piccadilly a success. The protocol now continues its journey on mainnet and Bakerloo, with the goal of building resilient, permissionless, and socially useful markets for the future.
🚀 Piccadilly may be retired, but its legacy lives on in every block of Autonity Mainnet.