Recently, the second Ethereum testnet successfully simulated the Shanghai hard fork. The Sepolia testnet finally successfully completed stake Ethereum (ETH) withdrawals. Meanwhile, there is one more test on the Goerli testnet that is scheduled before Shanghai goes live.
Ethereum blockchain upgrade
Ethereum Shanghai upgrade is proceeding towards its next upgrade. As it is a hard fork it hardcodes the new unstaking policy into Ethereum. And today, the second Ethereum test
network or testnet dubbed Sepolia, successfully replicated withdrawals of staked ETH. This brings the Ethereum blockchain one step closer to its highly anticipated Shanghai upgrade.
According to the recent updates, “the upgrade was triggered at epoch 56832 at 4:04 UTC and finalized at 4:17 UTC (11:17 p.m. ET). On the other hand, there is one more test on Ethereum’s Goerli testnet. And this is planned before Shanghai goes live.”
Additionally, the Shanghai upgrade will mark the complete transition of Ethereum to a fully functional proof-of-stake (PoS) network. This upgrade is enabling validators to withdraw rewards earned from adding or approving blocks to the blockchain.
The Sepolia test was designed to provide developers with another dress rehearsal of the withdrawals similar to those that will happen on Ethereum’s main blockchain. The testnests replicates a main blockchain in this case Ethereum and allows the developers to test any changes to their applications in a low-stakes environment.
It must be noted that the Sepolia is second of three testnets to run though such a simulation. But not similar with the previous testnet upgrade that happened earlier this month on Zhejiang, Sepolia was on a closed testnet. This means that only the Ethereum core developers run the validators on this testnet. Additionally, this testnet is the smallest among all three testnets in terms of number of validators who are participating on this and making this the least important of all three.
Going forward, then the last testnet upgrade is scheduled to happen to Goerli most probably in the coming weeks. It would be the final dress rehearsal before the main blockchain is able to process staked ETH withdrawals. The testing of Goerli will also be the most anticipated which shows it is the biggest testnet of the three. This mimics the main Ethereum blockchain’s activity most closely.
Just an assumption, the next testnet upgrade on Goerli may happen near to March 21st if the developers continue to run test upgrades three weeks apart. Thus, this could likely push the mainnet Shanghai Upgrade into April.
In the last one week, the price of Ethereum traded in between the price range of $1,567.63 and 1,674.60. Meanwhile, at press time Ethereum price is $1,626.26 with a 24-hour trading volume of $6.98 Billion. The coin is down 0.79% in the last 24 hours.
Nancy J. Allen is a crypto enthusiast and believes that cryptocurrencies inspire people to be their own banks and step aside from traditional monetary exchange systems. She is also intrigued by blockchain technology and its functioning.
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2023/03/01/ethereum-second-testnet-successfully-simulates-shanghai-hard-fork/