Ethereum Steps Towards Staking Withdrawals With Successful Testnet Upgrade

Developers move forward with upgrade to eventually allow users to withdraw staked ether from Ethereum mainnet

article-image

Source: Shutterstock / kkssr, modified by Blockworks

share

Ethereum developers successfully launched the Shanghai Capella upgrade on the Sepolia testnet shortly after midnight ET, Tuesday, at epoch 56832

The deployment is a step in Ethereum’s roadmap which, if all goes according to plan, will allow validators to withdraw ether when the update is complete on mainnet.

Ethereum core developers decided in a meeting earlier this month to begin moving to public testnets for the improvement proposal, known as EIP 4895 and agreed to start with Sepolia. As one of two Ethereum test networks with public validators, it’s attractive for developers to run application tests. 

“We quickly agreed that Sepolia should be first, as the validator set is smaller than Goerli,” Tim Beiko, who runs protocol meetings for Ethereum, wrote in a tweeted on Feb. 2.

The Sepolia testnet was launched in October 2021 to address concerns around the Merge, Beiko said. The network was used to successfully test the Merge upgrade alongside Ropsten and Goerli. Ropsten was later phased out in late 2022.

Sepolia is anticipated to become the primary Ethereum test network following plans to sunset Goerli, launched in 2019, which has suffered from issues with the supply of its test-version of ether, GoETH.

“When Sepolia launched, it addressed the supply issue by using an mintable ERC20 token for its beacon chain, rather than SepETH, which allows validators to effectively mint SepETH, post-Shapella. So, that should solve the supply issue,” Beiko added in a tweet. “Unfortunately, Sepolia isn’t open to permissionless validators, like Goerli is.”

The latest plan, according to project coordinators, is to launch a new testnet — Holli — targeted to serve application developers.

Loading Tweet..

The Sepolia deployment comes after developers successfully ran the application on the Zhejiang testnet earlier this month. 

“This will leave more time for tooling [and] docs to be ready for the Goerli upgrade, which will be the last ‘dress rehearsal’ prior to mainnet!” Beiko tweeted.

The Shanghai upgrade plans have been in the works since 2020 when Ethereum launched its Beacon Chain and started the transition to Proof-of-Stake. The Beacon Chain, the original PoS network that ran alongside Ethereum, merged with the network in 2022. Since then, more than 17 million ether have been staked, but users cannot un-stake or transfer the assets until the Shanghai upgrade is complete.

As of now, that remains on track for late March.

Macauley Peterson contributed reporting.


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Salt Lake City, UT

MON - TUES, OCT. 7 - 8, 2024

Blockworks and Bankless in collaboration with buidlbox are excited to announce the second installment of the Permissionless Hackathon – taking place October 7-8 in Salt Lake City, Utah. We’ve partnered with buidlbox to bring together the brightest minds in crypto for […]

Salt Lake City, UT

WED - FRI, OCTOBER 9 - 11, 2024

Permissionless is a conference for founders, application developers, and users. Come meet the next generation of people building and using crypto.

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

4.png

Research

This months PPGC covered four main areas. Firstly, debriefing the progress and status of the mainnet implementation of the Ahmedabad hard fork. Secondly, a retrospective on the testnet phase of the Ahemdabad Hard Fork. Thirdly, an update on PIP-36 which involves replaying failed state syncs. Lastly, PIP-47 which pushes upgrades to the Polygon Protocol Council.

article-image

The retail crowd is engaging with Robinhood both on and off chain, general manager Johann Kerbrat said

article-image

Gurbir Grewal, who has been at the agency almost as long as Gensler has been chair, will depart on Oct. 11, 2024

article-image

The stablecoin’s supply has declined about 50% in the last month, from $660 million to $320 million

article-image

Plus, Sky’s soaring stablecoin and simpler bitcoin staking

article-image

Bitwise took the initial steps for an XRP ETF Wednesday