NEWSLETTER
Ethereum core developers plan to activate the “Shapella” transition via the Zhejiang public testnet on February 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 and urged validators to get 33 ether from the faucet and “be ready for Shapella Tuesday.”
Ethereum Developers Prepare for ‘Shapella’ Update; Sepolia, Goerli Testnets to follow if all goes well
On February 2, 2023, Tim Beiko of the Ethereum Foundation saying that developers are preparing to release the “Shapella” transition on Tuesday using the Zhejiang testnet. “Shapella” combines the words “Shanghai” and “Capella”, representing two planned enhancements that will enable Ethereum withdrawals at the execution layer and update the Beacon chain consensus layer simultaneously.
Beiko further encouraged validators to obtain 33 test ethers from the Zhejiang faucet to participate. “The network has a faucet, block explorer, and staking launchpad – if you want to run a validator through the Shapella transition, this is a great opportunity to try it out,” Beiko tweeted. “You can get 33 (ethereum) through the faucet, start your validator, and be ready for Shapella Tuesday.” The Ethereum Foundation member and developer added:
Assuming the Zhejiang hard fork works well, they would be ready to move to public testnets and in what order. We quickly agreed that Sepolia should be first, since the set of validators is smaller than Goerli.
Beiko stressed that developers are monitoring bugs ahead of Shapella’s transition on the Zhejiang public testnet. The test is designed to identify any issues before the official Shapella update is applied to the mainnet in March. At the time of writing, the Beacon chain’s contract has 16.4 million ETHworth $26 billion using ETH Exchange rates locked on February 5, 2023.
“Shanghai” and “Capella” will enable execution and consensus layers to allow validators to remove this locked value. Recently, the liquid staking service Lido announced plans for a withdrawal feature ahead of the next mainnet update in March. Beiko said, “Retirements are coming up,” and if the other testnets transition successfully, “we’ll move to the mainnet.” He also noted that there will be another All Core Devs (ACD) meeting on Thursday, February 9, 2023.
What do you think about the upcoming Ethereum “Shapella” update and withdrawal plans? Will you participate in testnets or wait for mainnet activation? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
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