Ethereum Completes Goerli Testnet

Ethereum developers have completed the final round of testing for the network prior to the Shapella upgrade. 

Shapella Launch Date To Be Set Soon

On Tuesday, March 14, Ethereum developers conducted the final dress rehearsal for the upcoming Shanghai/Capella upgrade, also referred to as the Shapella upgrade. Although the exact date of the Shapella upgrade is yet to be set, the community believes it will take place in early April. The date will be set when the Ethereum developers meet for their biweekly call on Thursday. In the last call, the developers had talked about pushing back their initial March timeline to early April.

Low Participation In Goerli Testnet

Tuesday’s dress rehearsal took place on the Goerli testnet and stimulated staked ether (ETH) withdrawals. In the next and final step, the ETH staking would go live on the mainnet. 

Although the upgrade for the testnet was triggered at epoch 162304 at 10.26 UTC, there was low validator participation of just 26%. Due to this, the epoch has not yet been finalized. Ideally, this would have been done at 10.38 UTC. 

According to Ben Edgington, a product lead at Teku, an Ethereum client, this low participation rate was likely due to validator nodes not having upgraded on time for the Goerli fork. 

Staked ETH Soon To Be Unlocked

The upcoming upgrade is the final element required for the Ethereum network to fully transition to a proof-of-stake mechanism. Once the upgrade is live on the mainnet, validators will be able to withdraw their staked ether. 

So far, the funds have been locked up on the Ethereum blockchain since its PoS Beacon Chain went live in December 2020. Additionally, validators would also be able to withdraw the rewards they have earned by validating blocks on the blockchain. 

Most Significant Testnet Completed

Developers use these testing networks or testnets to assess the performance of different upgrades and changes before deploying on the mainnet. It provides the developers the opportunity to check for bugs or any necessary improvements to be made on the code before taking it live on the mainnet. 

Most of these testnets successfully mimic the mainnet to a certain degree. The Goerli testnet is considered especially useful and highly anticipated since, of all the other simulators, it has the largest validator set and mimics the mainnet’s blockchain activity most closely. The Goerli testnet also provided the last opportunity for staking providers to check if the staked ETH withdrawals were being properly processed. 

Including Goerli, there have been two other testnets to run through the Shanghai upgrade simulation – Zheijhang and Sepolia. 

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.