Using the testnet benefits both IOHK’s engineers and third-party developers. Users can use test tokens to experiment with the existing system and learn how to use upcoming features with no risk of losing funds and with no cost. IOHK will receive feedback from users which allows us to deploy improvements to the testnet ahead of the mainnet launch.
For more details, please see the Cardano testnet website: https://testnet.iohkdev.io/cardano
The Cardano testnet has been released with Cardano 1.4, which consists of Daedalus 0.12.0 and Cardano SL 2.0.0. This release includes a new wallet backend with new v1 API, as well as wallet data migration. Please see full release notes here. This release will be deployed on the Cardano mainnet when testing is complete.
Team IOHK
Source: https://forum.cardano.org/t/cardano-testnet-release/18354