Ethereum launches on Sepolia testnet for Shanghai-Capella
In the Sepolia testnet, Ethereum core developers have launched Shanghai-Capella. As a final dress rehearsal, the next step for developers will be to deploy the update to the Goerli testnet.
Ethereum developers have successfully published the Shanghai-Capella update on the Sepolia testnet, marking another step towards the next mainnet release.
Ethereum core developers initiated the update at epoch 56832 at roughly 4:04 a.m. UTC, which took approximately 13 minutes to complete. On one of three testnets, including Sepolia, the Shanghai-Capella upgrade, also known as Shapella, is being tested. Its deployment is seen as a precursor to the March rollout of the complete upgrade on the mainnet.
With the introduction of Sepolia today, developers have successfully recreated the core functionality of Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 4895, the Shapella update, on Sepolia. This proposal intends to allow validator withdrawals from staking on the network.
During the September 2022 Ethereum transition to proof-of-stake consensus, commonly known as The Merge, ETH withdrawals from validators were disabled. This is about to change.
In addition to facilitating validator withdrawals, the Shapella update includes three more changes targeted at minimizing gas costs for certain activities and enabling validator withdrawals.
The developers have planned many rounds of public testing for Shapella, and the Sepolia testnet is the second public testnet to install the update, after the Zhejiang testnet earlier this month.
The next stage for developers will be to put Shapella on the Goerli testnet at the beginning of March, which will serve as the last dress rehearsal before the launch of the mainnet.