At the December 8, 2022, All Core Developers meeting, Ethereum developers decided to implement the Shanghai upgrade, Ethereum Improvement Proposal 4895, in March 2023.
This upgrade will permit validators to withdraw their staked ETH from the Beacon Chain consensus layer after the Merge, taking place on September 15, 2022.
The Shanghai upgrade is a preparatory step for a scalability upgrade that will increase the network’s transaction throughput.
Marius van der Wijden, a developer, announced that withdrawals both in full and in part were functioning on two private Ethereum testnets, with an intent to launch a public testnet either on December 15 or December 16, 2022.
Testnets imitate the primary blockchain, such as Ethereum, and enable smart contract developers to experiment with applications without the danger of losing actual money.
Following van der Wijden’s declaration, teams creating renowned Ethereum clients reported on their preparedness to the group.
Clients are software that convert ordinary computers into nodes that aid in the security of the Ethereum network.
After merging, each node will run both a consensus and an execution client. Popular execution client implementations include Geth, Besus, Erigon, and Nethermind, while notable consensus implementations include Lighthouse, Lodestar, Nimbus, Prysm, and Teku.
Lodestar and Teku consensus client developers have confirmed they are ready to begin testing. To start, clients must interact with a public testnet to test their implementations.
