Ethereum’s upcoming Shanghai upgrade, also known as “Shapella,” recently underwent its final dress rehearsal on the Goerli test network (testnet) to simulate staked ether (ETH) withdrawals. This brings the upgrade closer to its final step of being activated live on the mainnet blockchain sometime next month.
Although the upgrade was triggered at epoch 162304 at 10:26 UTC, it hasn’t been finalised yet due to low validator participation rates. Under normal participation conditions, the epoch would have been finalised at 10:38 UTC (6:38 p.m. ET).
🌃 Goerli is moving to Shapella 🌃
📆 Upgrade @ epoch 162304, (10:25:36 PM UTC on Mar. 14, 2023)📆
Client release versions, FAQs and community calls + watch parties are all linked below ⤵️https://t.co/FmZuvZGBB4
— timbeiko.eth (@TimBeiko) March 8, 2023
The low participation rate, at 29% at the time of the trigger, is unusual for Ethereum. Ben Edgington, an Ethereum client and product lead at Teku, stated on a YouTube live stream that the low participation rate was likely due to validator nodes not having upgraded on time for the Goerli fork.
The Shanghai upgrade will complete Ethereum’s full transition to a proof-of-stake (PoS) network by allowing validators to withdraw their staked ether and rewards earned from adding or approving blocks to the blockchain. These funds have been locked up since December 2020 when Ethereum’s PoS Beacon Chain went live.
Testnets, such as Goerli, mimic a main blockchain and patch any bugs before any upgrades are deployed on the mainnet. Goerli was the last of three testnets to run through such a simulation. It was the most anticipated due to its large validator set and close resemblance to the Ethereum blockchain’s activity. It was also the last chance for staking providers to ensure that staked ETH withdrawals were appropriately processed before the upgrade went live.
Ethereum developers will discuss a mainnet target date for the Shanghai upgrade during their biweekly call on Thursday. During the last biweekly call, developers discussed a mainnet target date for sometime in the beginning of April, which is a slight deviation from their initial timeline set for March.
