What's the difference between the Hive and the Matrix?
(spoiler alert)
Hive is getting better with every new release! ;-)
This is going to be a very broing post for non-technical users, so if you happen to be one, then idk, just enjoy the new promo animation:
Beneficiaries: 100% set to 
OK, so if you are still reading then you just want to get raw data quickly:
New testnet instance is based on recent develop branch, i.e. 32716a5b2c82eaad7c9ba58e435295bbefbc66b5
So if you want to run the same code use:
git checkout 32716a5b2c82eaad7c9ba58e435295bbefbc66b5
p2p-seed-node = testnet.openhive.network:2001
18dcf0a285365fc58b71f18b3d3fec954aa0c141c44e4e5cb4cf777b9eab274e
https://testnet.openhive.network
https://testblog.openhive.network
https://testwallet.openhive.network
http://testnet.openhive.network:8091
ws://testnet.openhive.network:8090
http://testnet.openhive.network:8080
For now, just to start things up quickly, I'm running new hived, but the old versions of all the other components such as hivemind, condenser, wallet. Those will be upgraded to current versions soon.
It wasn't long before first issue was identified thanks to the new testnet instance:
Problems with legacy mode in get_result_formatters method.
Fix is on its way, but expect more issues and rough edges.
That's the whole point of testnet: to improve things before the final version is ready.
For testing changes to RC and other more demanding close to real world scenarios we would have to provision a mirror-of-the-mainnet type of a testnet. Lets in the meantime focus on this "little thing" ;-)
So as you can se it's fairly easy and lightweight to run your own Hive components in the tesetnet, whether you join the public one or run it on your own.
If you want to participate in public one, please let me know in the comments so I could send you some "testnet funds" if you need them.
Remember that those have no value and will vanish.
(Hopefully I don't have to remind about that, right?)
Also please expect that due to the nature of the testnet it's expected to be unavailable from time to time and/or reinitialized (i.e. restarted from scratch losing all history) without any warning / notice.