The Qtum Foundation today announced the launch of ‘Sparknet’ – the first public testnet for the Qtum blockchain.

Sparknet has been designed primarily for developers, while the mainnet, expected to be released in September, will be suited for the general public. Co-founder Jordan Earls, who leads Qtum’s team of almost two-dozen developers, said the testnet would feature an Ethereum Virtual Machine smart contract implementation along with Qtum’s proof-of-stake protocol.

“I’m ready to get this in the hands of the community and see what everyone’s response to it will be, in particular, what features other developers can come up with,” said Earls.

Qtum, a blockchain application platform, raised $15.6 million in a crowdsale in March. It combines the advantages of Bitcoin, Ethereum’s Virtual Machine and proof-of- stake consensus. The blockchain model was inspired by the rivalry between proponent developers of the world’s most active blockchain communities, said Qtum co-founder Patrick Dai.

“We want to illustrate efficient scalability and compatibility between blockchain technologies,” said Dai.

The Qtum blockchain operates according to the Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO) model, which ensures consistency in transactions and the traceability of tokens. At the same time, a virtual machine for smart contracts is layered on top of Qtum’s blockchain, which presents to developers a best-of-both-worlds architecture for the construction of decentralized mobile applications and other blockchain-based ventures.

“The Qtum team continues to execute and build what can be one of the most exciting and innovative railroads in the blockchain ecosystem," said Matthew Roszak, Qtum Angel investor and co-founder of Bloq.

Dai further said that six decentralized applications are already being built for the blockchain. Among the applications are a peer-to-peer mobile streaming platform and a prediction market. While these applications are geared to the Chinese market, the Qtum blockchain will appeal to a global audience, accessible to all developers, the official release said.

“Like many others around the world, I'm eagerly awaiting the launch,” said Roger Ver, a Qtum Angel investor who has been investing in bitcoin startups since the beginning.

The Foundation is sponsoring a hackathon in Moscow on July 1-2 to get developers familiar with Qtum.