The team behind Ethereum is getting closer to the launch of the Shanghai upgrade.
Ethereum Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting Ethereum and related technologies, revealed that the Shapella mainnet upgrade is “on the horizon.”
According to the blog post shared on February 10th, the Shapella fork is now available on the Zhejiang testnet, the first of the three testnets simulating the Shanghai upgrade.
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In the blog post, the Ethereum Foundation noted that the Shappella transition “contains many features.” However, according to the non-profit organization, the most crucial feature is enabling withdrawals for stakers and the consensus layer.
The Ethereum Foundation noted that full withdrawals are set to be available only for “exited validators,” while partial withdrawals “will be available for active validator balances in excess of 32 ETH.” Moreover, in the blog post, the Ethereum Foundation noted:
For validators to partake in withdrawals, they must have a 0x01 execution-layer withdrawal credential. If a validator currently has a 0x00 BLS withdrawal credential, they must sign a change operation to 0x01 to enable withdrawals.
It is worth noting that Shapella refers to two Ethereum upgrades, dubbed “Shanghai” and “Capella.” Shanghai, which is expected to launch in March, will allow withdrawals on the execution layer. On the other hand, “Capella” is an upgrade necessary for those withdrawals to happen.
At the end of its blog post, the team behind Ethereum stated:
If you are an Ethereum staker, node operator, infrastructure provider, or otherwise, now is a the time to get up to speed on the coming Shapella upgrade, test your software, and pay attention. From here, each public testnet will be upgraded, and if all goes according to plan, mainnet will soon follow.
It is worth mentioning that Ethereum Foundation plans to launch three testnets for the Shanghai upgrade, Zhejiang, Sepolia, and Goerli. Zhejiang testnet was launched on February 1st, whereas the Sepolia testnet is set to launch on February 28th. At the time of writing, the date for the Goerli testnet is unknown.
After the long-anticipated Merge upgrade, the team behind Ethereum continues to improve the blockchain and plans to install several upgrades, including “Shanghai,” “Surge,” “Verge,” “Purge,” and “Splurge.”
