About workspace types

Before you set up your workspace, you must choose the type of workspace (or workspaces) you want to use for your organization. These are the workspace types Fireblocks offers.

Mainnet workspace

Mainnets are blockchain networks that are fully developed and deployed, with cryptocurrency transactions being broadcasted, verified, and recorded. Mainnets have a base asset that can be used as funds for transactions or to pay network fees. All the assets on Mainnets have real-world monetary value.

A Mainnet workspace is an environment that allows you and your organization to conduct your real-world financial operations on the Fireblocks platform.

In Mainnet workspaces, you can transfer digital assets securely, add users, create vault accounts, whitelist addresses, connect to supported exchanges, connect to Fireblocks Network members, configure MPC-CMP devices, establish network connections, and transfer digital assets.

Learn more about the differences between testnet and Mainnet workspaces.

Testnet workspace

Testnets are blockchain test networks typically used by developers to experiment with the blockchain. Testnets operate on blockchains separate from their associated Mainnet. Testnet assets have no monetary value, and many of them reset periodically.

A testnet workspace is a sandbox environment that only allows you to use testnet assets for integration and testing purposes.

In testnet workspaces, you can perform many of the same actions you can in a Mainnet workspace. The primary difference is that you can transfer testnet assets without incurring real-world fees.

Learn more about the differences between testnet and Mainnet workspaces.

In the Fireblocks Console, the Testnet Environment badge appears at the top of the page to help you identify your testnet workspace.

Testnet environment badge

Moving to a Mainnet workspace

When you’re ready to use your Mainnet workspace, there are a few things to keep in mind before you get started.

Other than the users you add to both, your Mainnet and testnet workspaces are completely different workspaces. Your Mainnet workspace will require its vault accounts and asset wallets, exchange and fiat account connections, policies, users, and more.
You must define the Mainnet workspace’s Transaction Authorization Policy (TAP) rules to work with the Mainnet workspace’s various users, user groups, sources, destinations, and assets. These parameters will likely be different from what you used in your testnet workspace.
You must configure your Mainnet workspace to work with any API integrations and third-party accounts you want to carry over from your testnet workspace. This includes creating a new API key for and provisioning your API Co-Signer. Note that you can add Fireblocks Console users, adjust the Admin Quorum, and connect to exchange accounts, fiat accounts, and Fireblocks Network members before or after you configure your API integrations.

Sandbox workspace

Sandbox workspaces are freely available to sign up for. These workspaces are geared towards quick development and experimentation. Here are some of the highlights of Sandbox environments:

When creating API users, the CSR certificate required to generate the private key is automatically created in the browser.
Access to the Developer Area API Monitoring feature that displays the workspace's API calls and errors over 24-hour and 7-day periods.
No mobile signing devices are needed. With all transactions being auto-approved, this reduces the complexity of trying out the Fireblocks API.

Differences in Sandbox user roles

When creating new Console or API users in Developer Sandbox workspaces, there are only three workspace roles available:

Non-Signing Admin
Editor
Viewer

In Sandbox workspaces, the Owner role is taken up by a backend service that manages auto-approvals to make experimentation and development easier. Therefore, the Non-Signing Admin replaces this role type and has the highest level of permissions, which are not present in Mainnet/Testnet workspaces, such as:

Creating and deleting users
Resetting 2FA for workspace users
Signing transactions (despite the "non-signing" in the role's name)

Learn more workspace roles and permissions in production Mainnet and Testnet workspaces.

Supported Mainnet & Testnet assets

Visit the Supported Blockchain Networks page to learn more about supported Mainnet and Testnet assets.