Lightchainai: Mainnet and Testnet

The testnet supports deploying and debugging smart contracts, checking gas estimation and transaction behavior, testing dApp integrations, and simulating Artificial Intelligence Virtual Machine (AIVM) interactions. Faucet tokens supply test LCAI for this development work without requiring assets that have monetary value.

These checks address the behavior observed in the test environment. Mainnet has its own network configuration and uses LCAI with real value, so a testnet deployment remains separate from a production deployment. The shared currency symbol does not make faucet tokens equivalent to mainnet LCAI.

Lightchain AI’s Mainnet Overview records genesis on May 5, 2026, at 12:12:02 UTC, with a fixed total supply of 10,000,000,000 LCAI. That supply figure describes mainnet.

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The mainnet parameters record a change from six seconds per slot to two seconds per slot beginning at slot 2017074 on September 22, 2026. This is a mainnet timing change; it supplies no corresponding testnet timing parameter.

The mainnet connection guide covers manual MetaMask setup and configurations for Hardhat, Foundry, ethers.js, and viem. Manual wallet setup includes the network name, RPC endpoint, chain ID, and currency symbol. The RPC endpoint and chain ID must correspond to the intended environment before a transaction is signed.

A test plan with a mainnet connection

In a hypothetical setup, a developer wants to rehearse a contract deployment with faucet tokens. The connected network reports chain ID 9200 , and the wallet displays LCAI. The reported chain ID identifies Lightchain AI Mainnet, so this connection does not meet the developer’s requirement to use valueless test tokens.

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Connecting with the documented testnet RPC configuration for chain ID 8200 resolves the environment mismatch before deployment. The result depends on using the matching testnet endpoint. The LCAI symbol alone cannot establish that the connection is to testnet, and correcting the connection provides no result yet about the contract’s behavior.

The testnet resets periodically. Keeping contract source code and deployment scripts under version control preserves the material needed to deploy again after a reset. Testnet is useful for repeated development work, but its records and deployments should not be treated as permanent production infrastructure.

Testnet RPC endpoints may also limit requests during high demand. Running your own testnet node is a documented alternative when endpoint throttling interferes with development.

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