Ethereum developers schedule Shanghai upgrade on Sepolia testnet for Feb. 28

The core developers of the Ethereum blockchain scheduled the launch of the Shanghai-Capella upgrade on the Sepolia test network for Feb. 28 at epoch 56832, per an official announcement.

Shanghai-Capella, also known as Shapella, is an upgrade aimed at enabling ether (ETH) withdrawals from network validators — a feature that wasn't enabled during the network's transition to proof-of-stake consensus, called The Merge.

The upgrade combines changes to the execution layer (Shanghai) and the consensus layer (Capella). Shanghai will upgrade the execution layer of Ethereum, while Capella will upgrade the consensus layer of the blockchain.

To reach the final upgrade in March, developers have planned multiple phases of public testing. The upcoming launch on Sepolia is the second public testnet to deploy the upgrade. Shapella has already been tested on the Zhejiang testnet earlier this month. As expected, the testing on Zhejiang revealed some minor bugs that have been worked on.

After deploying Shapella on the Sepolia testnet, developers will move to the Goerli testnet for the final phase of dress rehearsal ahead of the mainnet launch — expected to happen in March.