The long-awaited Ethereum’s Shanghai hard fork now has a target date of April 12, thanks to its core developers.
The deadline- 10:27:35 UTC on April 12, epoch 620,9536 will be formally announced by developers on GitHub.
The Shanghai upgrade will ultimately allow validators to withdraw their staked ether as well as any incentives received from adding or approving blocks to the blockchain, transforming Ethereum’s entire shift to a proof-of-stake [PoS] network.
Not long ago, ETH’s last test run for the Shanghai upgrade- the Shapella hard fork was executed on the Goerli testnet, paving the way for staked ETH withdrawals.
For Shapella to be forked onto the Goerli testnet , it required 15 epochs, “terence.eth” stated since network participation was below the two-thirds threshold then:
Moreover, the final dress rehearsal encountered some issues. As reported by TronWeekly, there was a delay in the deposit process as several testnet validators did not update their client software prior to the Goerli fork.
Another developer of the Ethereum foundation Parithosh Jayanthi noted that once the issues with the validators running older versions of clients were fixed, the attestation rate increased and is at the moment finalizing.
Five Ethereum Improvement Proposals are included in the Shanghai mainnet upgrade, including EIP-4985, which would allow staked Ether withdrawals on the Beacon Chain and complete Ethereum’s switch from a proof-of-work [PoW] consensus to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus.
Due to its resemblance to bond interest payments, ETH’s switch to a PoS consensus where investors can “stake” their tokens in exchange for incentives has caught the attention of regulators.
Staking Ethereum Has Placed It Under Regulators Scanner
A new accusation from a New York state regulator has revived the legal discussion after SEC head Gensler proposed ETH be securities.
KuCoin, a cryptocurrency exchange based in Seychelles, is being sued by New York Attorney General Letitia James on March 9 for allegedly breaking the law by selling unregistered securities. Ether was named in the lawsuit as one of the unregistered securities.
State and federal agencies, like as the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, have long regarded Ethereum as a commodity.
The crypto market would be greatly affected by its designation as a security, which would fundamentally alter how [and whether] the asset and others like it are traded in the United States.