When Blockchain Projects Go Live: Understanding Mainnet Launches

What Happens When a Blockchain Moves From Testing to Reality?

The journey of any blockchain project follows a predictable path: initial fundraising, development phase, rigorous testing, and finally the moment when everything goes public. This final stage is what we call the mainnet launch. But what exactly separates a mainnet from all the preparatory phases that come before it?

Mainnet vs. Testnet: Two Different Worlds

A mainnet represents the fully operational state of a blockchain protocol. At this point, cryptocurrency transactions are no longer hypothetical—they’re being transmitted across a distributed network, verified by validators or miners, and permanently recorded on the ledger. Real value is being exchanged, real data is being secured.

By contrast, a testnet is essentially a sandbox environment. Developers and engineers use it as a working prototype to identify bugs, test features, and stress-test the network under various conditions. A testnet is where the blockchain project learns to walk before it runs on the mainnet.

The Traditional Path: From Crowdfunding to Launch

Most blockchain teams follow a similar sequence. They begin with fundraising through an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) or Initial Exchange Offering (IEO), collecting capital from early supporters. These funds are channeled into building and refining the blockchain’s underlying technology. Then comes the testnet phase—where the community and developers hunt for vulnerabilities and performance issues. After addressing these concerns, the team deploys the mainnet version.

The ERC-20 to Native Coin Transition

The 2017 ICO boom offers a revealing example of how this process works in practice. Most projects issued ERC-20 tokens on the Ethereum network to distribute to their ICO participants. These tokens existed on Ethereum’s mainnet, not on the project’s own blockchain (which was still in development).

Once the project’s mainnet launched with its own blockchain infrastructure, something interesting happened: a token swap mechanism was triggered. ERC-20 tokens were exchanged for the newly minted native coins that would operate on the project’s proprietary blockchain. After the swap concluded, the old ERC-20 tokens were typically destroyed, ensuring that only the new native coins remained in circulation.

Beyond Ethereum: A Diverse Ecosystem

While Ethereum and ERC-20 tokens dominated the 2017 era, the blockchain space has always offered alternatives. Platforms like Stellar, NEM, NEO, TRON, and Waves each provided their own standards for token creation and deployment, demonstrating that different approaches to blockchain architecture and mainnet deployment can coexist successfully.

Why This Matters

Understanding the distinction between testnet and mainnet is crucial for anyone participating in blockchain projects. A mainnet launch isn’t just a technical milestone—it’s the moment when a blockchain project transitions from promise to reality, when theoretical security measures become practical implementation, and when investors move from holding representations of value to holding actual native cryptocurrency on a fully independent blockchain system.