Difference between bitcoin and testnet, really

Question

Other than what is listed in the wiki, what is the difference between the two networks?

Could you sell test bitcoins for money if you could find someone willing to buy?

What would happen if you tried to send test bitcoins to a 'real' account and vice versa?

Sorry, that's three questions, but they are closely related :D

Meni Rosenfeld · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-24 18:08:23Z

Testnet bitcoins are less widely used in commerce than mainnet, and are not perceived as intended to be a currency.

A currency needs to be scarce, durable, portable, fungible, divisible and current. Both mainnet and testnet coins are all of the first 5. Mainnet is much more current than testnet and forever will be.
Yes, you're unlikely to fetch a significant price though.
The transaction will not be recognized as a valid transaction. It would essentially be an irrelevant jumble. In fact the client wouldn't allow you to send anything because the address won't match the format of the respective network.

Testnet coins aren't durable. Sometimes, the bitcoins developers will ship a new testnet with a new bitcoin client. This will reset everybody's balance to 0 on the testnet. It's happened twice so far.
@NickODell: Interesting point, which leads to a philosophical discussion of "which is the real testnet"...

1 Answer