Ahead of the Shanghai Capella testnet launch by Ethereum developers this week, Consensus Layer (CL) client teams discussed the progress of testing the upgrade on a All Core Developers Consensus Call (ACDC).
The Ethereum development team began testing a Maximum Mined Value (MEV) boost, an open source middleware run by validators to access a competitive block creation market. MEV-Boost allows validators to access blocks from a builder’s marketplace.
Created by research organization, Flashbots, as an implementation of Prosperity Builder Separation (PBS) for the proof-of-stake blockchain that underpins the Ethereum network.
The Shanghai update has been activated, along with the Zheijang testnet and Devnet7. Tim Beiko, an Ethereum core developer, posted a Blog announcing the dates and final client releases for the Shanghai activation and the Sepolia testnet. Beiko stated:
After months of testing and a short-lived devnet release, the Shanghai/Capella (aka Shapella) network update is now scheduled to roll out to Sepolia. This update follows The Merge and allows validators to pull their Beacon Chain stake back to the execution layer.
Ethereum still has a long road to growth
Ethereum Foundation researcher and network upgrade coordinator Danny Ryan recently published a Blog stating that despite “The Merge” and recent updates implemented to the network, Ethereum still has a long way to go. Ryan said:
Take a brief look at Vitalik’s roadmap document and you can’t help but feel the dizzying weight of the many long and complex years (5, 10?) ahead until the protocol is “done”.
According to Ryan, the Ethereum development team is tasked with finding the “sufficient end state” for a functional, secure, and decentralized blockchain, which means providing sufficiently secure services for customers and users of the Ethereum protocol.
Although Ethereum has started the year with big strides in terms of development and offering a more secure ecosystem for clients, Ryan suggests a long and complex roadmap ahead, with “immediate technology concerns” to address on the network.
As for the Deneb schedule, which comes after the Shanghai-Capella protocol update, the CL customer team has released a new mail for the next update, which includes cryptography and new test cases.
Danny Ryan also admitted that ongoing work on the protocol aims to remove additional code logic to handle empty blob transactions, which contain a large amount of data that the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) cannot access. Danny Ryan concluded:
In short, Ethereum remains stronger than ever. The community building the core infrastructure, the community layered in scale, and the community building on top are amazing to be a part of and watch. But, there are still big challenges; there are still immense risks.
Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency on the market by market capitalization, is currently trading at the $1,600 level, representing a 2.8% drop in price over the past 24 hours.
On the seven-day time frame, ETH is down 2.1% and longer-term it appears to be holding on to the same level as the January uptrend, with gains of 3.5% over the last 30 days.
Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView.
