Ethereum developers are making preparations for the highly-anticipated launch of the Shanghai-Capella upgrade, also known as Shapella, on the Goerli test network in a final dress rehearsal before the scheduled mainnet launch in April. According to the Ethereum Foundation’s blog post, the upgrade will be activated at epoch 162304 on Goerli, estimated to occur around 6:25 pm EST. Following successful testing on Goerli, developers intend to deploy the upgrade on the mainnet next month. The Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 4895, the primary enhancement of the upgrade, seeks to facilitate validator staking withdrawals on the main network. After the switch to a proof-of-stake consensus in September 2022, this feature was disabled to guarantee a secure transition.
The Shapella upgrade has undergone public testing on two other testnets, Sepolia and Zhejiang, since February, and the Goerli testnet is the third and final one. In addition to the withdrawal feature, developers have added three more improvements, all intended to optimize gas cost for specific activities with the Shapella upgrade.