Ethereum's next big upgrade Shapella expected to hit mainnet on April 12

Ethereum core developers are targeting April 12 to release the highly-anticipated Shanghai-Capella upgrade, or Shapella, on the mainnet.

The main feature of the upgrade is Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 4895, which aims to enable validator staking withdrawals on the main network. This critical function was not introduced during Ethereum's switch to a proof-of-stake consensus in September to ensure a safe transition.

Besides the withdrawals, developers have also planned three additional improvements aimed at optimizing gas costs for certain activities with the Shapella upgrade.

The upgrade is due to take place on April 12 at 10:27 a.m. UTC, with epoch number 620,9536, core developers said at a meeting on Thursday. 

Since February, developers have carried out multiple phases of public testing on three test networks, or testnets, including Sepolia, Zhejiang, and Goerli. On Tuesday, Shapella was released on the Goerli testnet as the final dress rehearsal before the mainnet launch. All three testnets have successfully processed ETH withdrawals from their own validator sets.