Ethereum nears Shanghai after first “shadow fork”

Ethereum is one step closer to its upcoming upgrade, Shanghai, after successfully completing its first “shadow fork.” The test launch took place on Monday at around 5:30 a.m. ET, according to Parithosh Jayathi, a DevOps Engineer at the Ethereum Foundation.

The shadow fork, also known as a testnet fork, allows developers to test the upgrade on a version of the main network. The main goal of the Shanghai upgrade is to let users withdraw their staked Ether (stETH) tokens. The hard fork that will make this happen is set to happen in March 2023.

The shadow fork gives a version of the Ethereum mainnet a place to test the code to see if it will work correctly on the real blockchain. As CoinDesk notes, Ethereum has conducted several shadow forks in the past to test updates before its transition to roof-of-stake (PoS) last year.

Reports say that the test launch on Monday had some technical problems, but that small problems with Ethereum nodes using Geth clients were quickly fixed. The developers will conduct further testing to ensure everything functions correctly.

Ethereum is also considering implementing a public testnet in February as a way to have more test environments before the March upgrade, which will allow third-party staking services to test Shanghai before its official launch on the mainnet.

In short, Ethereum’s Shanghai upgrade test launch went well, and users will soon be able to withdraw their staked Ether tokens. Now, the developers are focusing on testing more, and they are also thinking about putting in place a public testnet in February.

More on this topic:

• Countdown to Ethereum 2.0