Second Testnet Successful For Shanghai Upgrade

The Ethereum network has successfully completed the second testnet, i.e., the Sepolia testnet, in preparation for the upcoming Shanghai upgrade. 

Sepolia Processes st-ETH Withdrawals

The Sepolia testnet was successfully triggered and finalized to the effect that it was able to process staked ETH withdrawals. This brings that much-awaited Shanghai upgrade one step closer, which would mark the network’s complete transition to a fully functional proof-of-stake mechanism. With the Shanghai upgrade, validators would finally be able to withdraw staking rewards from their staked ETH.

The update was revealed in a blog post announcement on February 21, where the developer team addressed the Shanghai upgrade, saying, 

“This upgrade follows The Merge and enables validators to withdraw their stake from the Beacon Chain back to the execution layer. It also introduces new functionality to both the execution and consensus layer.”

Successful Testing Till Now

The purpose of testnets is to give new upgrades a trial run on a private network that mimics the mainnet. It allows developers to catch any bugs or errors and rectify them in a low-stakes environment before updating the main protocol. 

One round of testing has been successfully conducted for the upcoming Shanghai upgrade, while the second is scheduled for the end of the month. The first one was on the Zhejiang testnet, which went live in early February and revealed some minor bugs, which have since then been addressed. The developers have also clarified that those bugs would not affect the final date of deployment on the mainnet. The team has also released the first shadow fork of the mainnet. 

The latest one, the Sepolia testnet, has just successfully replicated withdrawals of staked ether to provide developers with another run-through of the withdrawals that will happen on the mainnet. However, unlike the previous one, Sepolia was a closed testnet accessible only by Ethereum core developers. 

Upcoming Schedules Affected

The Shanghai/Capella upgrade, which is also referred to as the ‘Shapella’ upgrade, is scheduled to be deployed on the Sepolia testnet on February 28. The community is expecting this development to have a positive effect on the protocol’s native crypto, ETH. 

The third and final testnet, i.e., the Goerli testnet, is scheduled just before Shanghai goes live on the mainnet. However, since there was a three-week gap between the Zheijiang and the Sepolia testnets, there is a possibility that the Goerli testnet upgrade would happen around March 21. This means that the final Shanghai upgrade on the mainnet would not happen before April, which is a slight delay to the initial plan of a March release. 

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.