Ethereum’s last test run for the Shanghai upgrade- the Shapella hard fork has been executed on the Goerli testnet, paving the way for staked ETH withdrawals.
This was announced by the ETH core developer Tim Beiko apprising the fork while also pointing out issues that came with it.
Beiko observed that several testnet validators did not update their client software prior to the Goerli fork, which caused a delay in the deposit process.
This again has its own challenge as there is “less incentive to run a validator/monitor it”, given that the Goerli ETH “is worthless”.
However, he still expects validators to make the necessary adjustments ahead of the fork on the mainnet.
Another developer of the Ethereum foundation Parithosh Jayanthi noted that once the issues with the validators running older versions of clients were fixed, the attestation rate increased and is at the moment finalizing.
“Mainnet comes next”, he exclaimed.
Also, for Shapella to be forked onto the Goerli testnet , it required 15 epochs, “terence.eth” stated since network participation was below the two-thirds threshold:
The final mainnet of the Shapella fork is expected to take place in early April following a few delays in preparing the Sepolia and Goerli testnets for the fork.
The Shanghai upgrade will ultimately allow validators to withdraw their staked ether as well as any incentives received from adding or approving blocks to the blockchain, transforming Ethereum’s entire shift to a proof-of-stake [PoS] network.
Ethereum’s Goerli Was The Last Of The Three Testnets
It needs to be told that Goerli was the most anticipated because it was the last of three testnets to run through such a simulation.
Also, Goerli was the final chance for staking providers to verify that staked ETH withdrawals would be handled correctly prior to the update going live.
In addition, this test has the most validators and closely mimics the activity on the Ethereum blockchain.
Before any changes are made to the mainnet, developers can repair any bugs on testnets, which imitate the main blockchain.
As reported by TronWeekly, on the client side of the consensus layer, the upgrade is referred to as Capella, while the fork is referred to as Shanghai on the client side of the execution layer.
The name “Shapella” have been derived from the combination of Shanghai, the location of Devcon 2, and Capella, the brightest star in the northern constellation of Auriga.
The ability for validators to return their staked Ether [stETH] from the Beacon Chain to the execution layer is one of the significant changes.