The upcoming Ethereum Shanghai update is quickly approaching, and developers have taken steps to ensure a smooth transition.
They have created a testnet called “Withdrawal-Mainnet-Shadow-Fork-1” – also known as a “shadow fork” – which will be used to test the conditions needed for Ether staking withdrawals.
This is currently disabled on the mainnet, but is intended to be enabled after the update is completed. Developers Marius Van Der Wijden and “Potuz” will create malicious nodes on the testnet to try and see if the network is vulnerable to attack.
This is being done to make sure the upgrade is secure before it is implemented. The urgency to enable Ether staking withdrawals has been increasing since November, when devs received criticism for allegedly moving the goalpost.
Over 14.5 million ETH is currently stuck in the Ethereum staking contract, which is worth over $23 billion at the time of writing.
The Ethereum Shanghai update is intended to bring much-needed improvements to the network, including the enabling of Ether staking withdrawals.
Developers are doing their best to make sure the update goes smoothly, and the creation of the shadow fork testnet is an important step in
