Does the testnet faucet still exist? How to create testnet ADA?

Question

We are learning how to work with the cardano wallet cli in pursuit of building our product. We're just getting started. We would like to work in the testnet because we have a lot to learn and we don't want to burn real ada while we learn it.

So, we have brought up the wallet like so: NETWORK=testnet docker-compose up

This uses the iohk docker-compose found here: https://github.com/input-output-hk/cardano-wallet

Now, when we hit the information endpoint we get:

docker run --network host --rm inputoutput/cardano-wallet network information

Ok.
{
    "node_era": "byron",
    "node_tip": {
        "height": {
            "quantity": 201726,
            "unit": "block"
        },
        "time": "2019-09-09T18:49:36Z",
        "epoch_number": 9,
        "absolute_slot_number": 202768,
        "slot_number": 8368
    },
    "sync_progress": {
        "status": "syncing",
        "progress": {
            "quantity": 7.09,
            "unit": "percent"
        }
    }
}

So far as we can tell this is all normal. However, we're not sure how to proceed as we have no testnet ada. We found mention of a 'testnet faucet' but can't find any actual documentation on how to use it. How to folks go about creating ada for use on the testnet?

Answer 1

You can request tAda from the test faucet here. By adding an address without an API key you will receive 1000 tAda. You could also request an API key from IOHK to have a bespoke amount of tAda/Testcoin if required. Once you're finished with your tAda you should return them to this address (which you can see on the official documentation page too).

addr_test1qqr585tvlc7ylnqvz8pyqwauzrdu0mxag3m7q56grgmgu7sxu2hyfhlkwuxupa9d5085eunq2qywy7hvmvej456flknswgndm3