Ethereum core developers plan to activate the “Shapella” transition through the Zhejiang public testnet on Feb. 7, 2023, according to Tim Beiko of the Ethereum Foundation. If successful, Beiko said the Sepolia testnet could follow two days later, followed by the Goerli testnet. He noted that the testnet has a faucet, block explorer, and staking launchpad support and urged validators to obtain 33 ether from the faucet and “be ready for Shapella Tuesday.”
Ethereum Devs Prepare for ‘Shapella’ Upgrade; Sepolia, Goerli Testnets to Follow If All Goes Well
On Feb. 2, 2023, Tim Beiko of the Ethereum Foundation said that developers are preparing to launch the “Shapella” transition on Tuesday using the Zhejiang test network. “Shapella” combines the words “Shanghai” and “Capella,” representing two planned enhancements that will allow for Ethereum withdrawals on the execution layer and upgrade the Beacon chain consensus layer simultaneously.
Beiko further encouraged validators to get 33 test ethers from the Zhejiang faucet to participate. “The network has a faucet, block explorer, and staking launchpad support: if you want to run a validator through the Shapella transition, this is a great opportunity to try it,” Beiko tweeted. “You can get 33 [ethereum] via the faucet, start your validator, and be ready for Shapella Tuesday.” The Ethereum Foundation member and developer added:
Assuming the Zhejiang fork goes well, they would be ready to move to public testnets, and in what order. We quickly agreed that Sepolia should be first, as the validator set is smaller than Goerli.
Beiko emphasized that developers are monitoring for bugs before the Shapella transition on the Zhejiang public testnet. The testing is designed to identify any problems before the official Shapella upgrade is applied to the mainnet in March. At the time of writing, the Beacon chain contract has 16.4 million ETH, worth $26 billion using ETH exchange rates on Feb. 5, 2023, locked.
“Shanghai” and “Capella” will allow for execution and consensus layers to enable validators to withdraw this locked value. Recently, the liquid staking service Lido announced plans for a withdrawal feature prior to the forthcoming mainnet upgrade in March. Beiko said “Withdrawals are coming” and, if the other testnets transition successfully, “we’ll move to mainnet.” He also noted that there will be another All Core Devs (ACD) meeting on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023.
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33 ether, All Core Devs, Beacon Chain, Block explorer, Bugs, Capella, Capella Fork, consensus layer, Developers, Devs, ETH, Ethereum, Ethereum Foundation, execution layer, faucet, Goerli, Lido, Liquid Staking, locked value, Mainnet, mainnet upgrade, March, meeting, Sepolia, Shanghai, Shanghai fork, Shanghai transition, Shanghai upgrade, Shapella, Software, staking launchpad, Testing, testnet, testnets, Tim Beiko, transition, validator set, Validators, Withdrawals, Zhejiang
What do you think about the upcoming Ethereum “Shapella” upgrade and the plans for withdrawals? Will you be participating in the testnets or waiting for the mainnet activation? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Jamie Redman
Jamie Redman is the News Lead at Bitcoin.com News and a financial tech journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open-source code, and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 6,000 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.
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Ethereum developers have announced plans for a new planned upgrade for their protocol called “Shapella”. Shapella is expected to be launched on a testnet in Zhejiang, China on Monday, June 1st. The upgrade will address a range of issues, such as increasing the current transaction throughput, improving transaction speed, and introducing a new fee system.
Shapella is part of the Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 1559, and is a major improvement to the Ethereum Protocol. Ethereum core developers and independent experts have been working on the new upgrade since late 2019. The upgrade is expected to make the Ethereum network more efficient and secure.
According to developers, Shapella will reduce the cost of using Ethereum, eliminate miner fees and introduce a new fee system based on the total demand for the network. This new fee system is expected to make fees more predictable and help to reduce the cost of sending Ethereum.
Shapella will also introduce new blockchain validation mechanisms designed to prevent double spending and other threats, as well as improve the efficiency of block validation.
In addition, Shapella will also enable withdrawals from Zhejiang testnet. Developers have indicated that users will be able to withdraw their funds from the testnet once Shapella is implemented. This will make it easier for developers to experiment with the Ethereum network.
Overall, Shapella is expected to significantly improve the Ethereum network. The developers are confident that the planned upgrade will make Ethereum more reliable, secure, and cost-effective in the future. The implementation of Shapella on Zhejiang testnet is scheduled for June 1st and users can expect to start withdrawals once it is available.
