Ethereum Developers Successfully Implement Shanghai Upgrade on Seoplia Testnet, Goerli Next

Preparations are in full swing as the Ethereum blockchain network is all set for the Shanghai hardfork scheduled next month on March. This will be the first major upgrade for the Ethereum ecosystem after the Merge event in September 2022.

Earlier today on February 28, the “Shapella” upgrade that combines the names of Shanghai and Capella hard forks were successful implemented. The upgrade was triggered at epoch 56832 at 4:04 UTC and finalized at 4:17 UTC (11:17 p.m. ET).

Shanghai is the name of the hard fork on the execution layer side whiles Capella is the name of the hard fork on the consensus layer side.

One of the major changes that upcoming hardfork caters to is allowing uses to withdraw their staked Ether (stETH) from the Beacon Chain back into the execution layer.

Currently, the validators have to stake 32 Ether (ETH) to validate on the Ethereum blockchain network. After the Shanghai hardfork, they will now be able to withdraw in excess of 32 ETH. Some validates can continue validating while withdrawing the rewards and holding the 32 ETH. Other might choose to make a complete exit along with their 32 ETH.

With the successful implementation of the Shanghai hardfork on the Sepolia testnet, the next major step will be to upgrade on the Goerli testnet. The implementation on the Goerli testnet shall happen in the coming weeks.

The recent test on the Sepolia testnet provide Ethereum developers another dress rehearsal and gives them an idea of how the upgrade will look on the Ethereum mainnet. The purpose of testing the upgrade on testnets is that developers can test whether the upgrade is working fine in a low-stakes environment.

Sepolia is the second of the three testnets to run such a simulation. However, this is a closed testnet, meaning that only the Ethereum core developers run the validators on this testnet. In terms of the numbers of participating validators, Sepolia is also among the smallest of the three testnets.

The upgrade on the Goerli testnet would be the final dress rehearsal before the main blockchain is able to process the withdrawals of staked Ether. Goerli is the biggest of the three testnets and thus it would be the most important implementation.

As of press time, Ethereum (ETH) is trading at $1630 levels with its market cap just under $200 billion. Many market experts believe that the Shanghai upgrade might create a selling pressure on ETH since its supply will drastically increase in the market.