Ethereum developers continue their hustle and bustle. After much deliberation, they decided on a date for the release of Shanghai Testnet, the next major update. So, mark your calendars — late February will be a big deal for Ethereum.
The Shanghai Update is the most important event for Ethereum since The Merge last September. And these two events are related. With this update, validators could withdraw staked ETH. Currently, all validators have their ETH locked, and getting this feature is a priority in Q1 2023.
Once the network implements this upgrade, users can access their staked coins.
The developers intend to launch public test networks by the end of February. The launch of the Shanghai update will take place in March 2023.
To get to this point, however, the developers had to sacrifice launching EOF with this update.
EOF stands for EVM Object Format and would be a significant code change targeting the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). All EOF implementations would revamp Ethereum's transaction formats. In turn, it will be easier for the EVM to distinguish smart contract codes and be more easily upgradable.
While there have been several positive updates for the development of the EOF, its launch is far from the horizon.
Vitalik Buterin himself advocated against including it in the next update. According to Buterin, the changes made in the EVM take a lot of work to remove. Failures in the EOF update could set back years of development.
The Shanghai upgrade is a crucial milestone for the ETH community. All its validators and stakers can withdraw their funds much earlier than planned.
The future is bright for Ethereum — won't you be a part of it?
