We’ve talked at length about the importance of load testing. We even ran a webinar with our CTO, Tim De Wachter discussing load testing, the differences between it and stress testing, some key reasons why you should load test, and more! When it comes to secure and stable running, Cyrex are keen to ensure things stay that way, no matter the change or traffic. We carry that attitude to blockchain networks as they evolve and offer new opportunities for almost every industry involved in the digital space. This is where we now push many aspects of innovation, particularly in blockchain load testing. Blockchain and its surrounding infrastructure is no exception to the importance of stable performance. In many cases, as we’re dealing with peoples’ digital property and currency, it can be even more important.

Load Testing the Blockchain Mainnet

Now this heading is a bit misleading but let us explain. The mainnet is an active, live running blockchain. Every network has a mainnet – which is where peoples’ blockchain applications, wallets, smart contracts, and more exist. All the real transactions and blockchain interactions happen here, on each respective blockchain network. Mainnet and testnet are two words that might get thrown around and we’d like to ensure it’s clear for everyone who might want to learn. The mainnet is, as we said, the actual live version of a blockchain network. The testnet is an accessible testing ground, a sort of duplicate that each network has. It’s where you can test new functionalities, transactions, and concepts. Every blockchain network has a testnet and Ethereum actually has several, community driven testnets. Users and developers can even request fake cryptocurrency from ‘faucets’ to go about testing transaction or transaction-based functionalities. So, when we talk about load testing on the blockchain, we mean we have conducted load testing on the testnet of that network.

How Does Blockchain Load Testing Work?

It’s been a productive year for the Cyrex team, getting involved in more blockchain load testing. We’ve done several projects this year alone, all focused on load testing a testnet to ensure a stable launch. For the most part, there seems to be a lot of attention and draw on NFT drops for games and other blockchain applications. And it makes perfect sense for this type of launch event to need load testing. NFTs, as we know, are a growing and popular element of blockchain gaming. Outside of gaming, they have a nearly endless list of potential uses. And for NFT drops, it’s like buying tickets to a concert. The number of tickets, or NFTs, is finite. And the number of people who want them is definitely more than is available. If you’re conducting an NFT drop of ten thousand, you are going to have ten thousand interactions all occurring very quickly and nearly all at once. Users will rush in, mint their NFT, and own it. And no one involved wants that process to break down. Load testing, just like in non-blockchain applications, is all about the infrastructure that contains the event. The blockchain can’t go down but your application or website running the drop certainly can! And as we have said before, blockchain is only as secure and stable as the application built upon it.

Why use Cyrex for your Blockchain Load Testing

The Cyrex team pride themselves on keeping up with the modern trends and innovating on them. With blockchain and NFTs, we immediately set to work about securing their use and ensuring their operations could run under heavy traffic. As a result, we started gaining serious amounts of experience with blockchain networks from the beginning. Securing them, their applications, and smart contracts has been a regular day-to-day occurrence for the Cyrex team. This knowledge and familiarity with blockchain, crypto, and NFT operations means we can offer industry leading blockchain load testing capabilities. While we load test, we can spawn fake wallets and utilise fake crypto to fully simulate blockchain interactions. Our knowledge of the blockchain means we can simulate nearly any blockchain function while we load test. And using our headless load testing Swarm, we can simulate any number of interactions that act just like a human would. These combined mean we offer load testing solutions that no other service can provide.

If you’d like to benefit from Cyrex Load Testing, don’t hesitate to get in contact! And if you’re interested in our other services, check out our pen testing and development service pages! Finally, if you’re interested in a career in cybersecurity, check out our careers page!