Today, April 12, the Shanghai Upgrade, also known as the Shapella Upgrade, will be launched on the Ethereum network. This means that, finally, validators will be able to recover stacked ether coins. Where investors will have access to $35 billion of ETH that has been stored and accumulated for 3 years.
Shabella's upgrade of the Ethereum network is imminent, and will happen today, one of the most awaited upgrades on Ethereum after the famous network merge that changed the consensus mechanism of the check. Whereas, the Shabella upgrade will be the final stage that will allow validators of the Ethereum Proof-of-Stake (PoS) network to unlock ETH.
In fact, to keep things simple, the Shabella upgrade is the second and final part of the Ethereum upgrade from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS). The project was divided into two phases to avoid one huge, high-risk upgrade.
There was a need to reduce the number of significant changes occurring simultaneously. Thus securing a well-established network that handles trillions of dollars in value each year.
Chabela’s upgrade will finally end a three-year waiting period for those who have hoarded ETH. The process of staking Ethereum started in 2020. As a result of the integration upgrade, Ethereum shifted from a Proof-of-Work (PoW) mechanism to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) mechanism.
Investors staked 32 ETH blocks to become validators on the network. They are promised to earn new ethers in addition to their accumulated coins.
Investors who have deposited and locked ether coins into the network over the past three years will finally be able to reap their profits. The agenda for Shabella's upgrade is to change the implementation layer (Shanghai), consensus layer (Capella), and engine API.
To be more clear, the Chabella upgrade combines modifications to the Shanghai Ethereum Virtual Machine called Shanghai and a consensus layer called Capella and includes changes to the Engine API that connects the two layers. After the transfers of Seppolia and Goerli, the client teams scheduled Chabela's upgrade to activate the mainnet.
The developers of the Ethereum network claim that the upgrade will finally enable this unsteady end-to-end flow and pave the way for activating the ETH stack withdrawals on the mainnet.
Apart from enabling validators to withdraw their ETH. The upgrade will also introduce new functionality for both the execution and consensus layer and implement the following Ethereum improvement proposals: EIP-3651, EIP-3855, EIP-3860, EIP-4895, and EIP-6049. It is also expected to reduce gas fees, improve network scalability, and enhance Ethereum network speed.
However, the system may encounter some glitches when the upgrade starts, the previous test results were not encouraging because many computers were not compatible with the latest update, and the transaction time was much longer than required. Moreover, during such heavy traffic, the network may be vulnerable, and hackers may try to exploit the situation.
Also, Ethereum is one of the largest networks, as it uses the Proof of Stake consensus mechanism through accumulated capitalization. It has more than $35.6 billion of all tokens participating in staking, of which more than 15% of its supply is now locked.
With this upgrade, approximately 15% of the total Ether will be available for withdrawal. However, these withdrawals may be available in stages. It will be a scheduled withdrawal with timings spread out in weeks. Some investors will have to wait longer because of the added complexity. Whereas, approximately 1.1 million ETH will be available for withdrawal after Shabela's upgrade within a week.
As the cryptocurrency community is eagerly anticipating this historic event for the Ethereum network. They can expect a more efficient, secure, and user-friendly Ethereum network starting April 12th. Without a doubt, Shabella's upgrade represents another major milestone in the Ethereum journey. This ensures that the platform remains competitive and meets the evolving needs of its users.
