Developers finalize first 'shadow fork' for Ethereum's Shanghai upgrade
Quick Take
- Ethereum developers successfully released a “shadow fork” of the Shanghai upgrade.
- There were a few minor technical issues, with Ethereum’s nodes using Geth clients after the fork.
Developers successfully launched a "shadow fork" of the Shanghai upgrade to test it on a version of the main Ethereum network.
A shadow fork is a test version of the actual mainnet, allowing developers to see if a piece of code from the proposed upgrade will work correctly on the real blockchain. The test for the Shanghai upgrade took place around 5:30 am ET.
There were a few minor technical issues, with Ethereum's nodes using Geth clients after the fork, as reported by Marius Van Der Wijden, a Geth developer. But developers were able to fix the issues, and now all nodes are in agreement. They will be testing more to ensure everything works properly, Van Der Wijden added.
With Shanghai, withdrawals will be launched on the mainnet in March, enabling users to access their staked coins that were made temporarily inaccessible during the transition known as "The Merge" in September. While the main feature will be withdrawals, developers have finalized three other improvements aimed at optimizing gas costs for certain activities.
Developers are considering a public test network before the end of February, which would onboard staking firms to test the Shanghai upgrade. Additional shadow forks are planned in the coming weeks.
© 2023 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
