Ethereum Launches Shanghai Update Testnet; What changes should we expect?

The Ethereum development team, Shandong, launched the Shanghai update testnet. Now, developers can start the implementation phase of Ethereum Improvement Proposals. It is expected that after the important update of Shanghai until September 2023 (September 1402), we will see some important developments such as reducing the cost of gas (fees) and the possibility of withdrawing ethereums staked in the network.

To Report Cointelegraph, Shanghai, will be the first major update since Ethereum’s consensus mechanism switched to proof-of-stake in September.

The Shanghai Update makes a fundamental change to the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM); A technology that is the infrastructure of smart contracts of this network. The community has long been waiting for the implementation of Ethereum’s EIP-3540 improvement proposal or EVM object format; Because this update decouples the encoding from the data, it can be beneficial for on-chain validators.

Galen Moore, Chief Content Officer at Axelar, had this to say about this Ethereum improvement project:

In my view, EIP-3540 is the most important upgrade plan proposed for Shanghai. This plan is a step forward towards interoperability in the Ethereum ecosystem. Currently, Ethereum layer 2 networks use heavy coding in the validation process. EIP-3540 makes this process more efficient by separating the codes from the data. The implementation of this plan is especially good news for the growing ecosystem of decentralized applications built on Polygon.

EIP-4895 is another highly anticipated proposal that allows for the withdrawal of staked Ethereum and rewards earned through the Beacon Chain (Ethernet’s pre-merger proof-of-stake network). Currently, in order to ensure the stability of the network, validators cannot withdraw their staked Ethereum.

Changes in layer 2 protocols, reducing gas costs by equalizing block sizes and increasing the efficiency of calldata in the network are among the proposals under consideration that will likely be introduced in the Shanghai update.

Moore says:

When specialized blockchains can [پروتکل‌های] Layer 2 will be built like Polygon and reduce the cost of communication (information exchange) with the Ethereum main network, the gas cost will also be reduced for users everywhere in the ecosystem; Because demand by making horizontal scalability more efficient [شبکه] increase.

The merger was the first step in a five-step process that a number of Ethereum developers, ecosystem contributors, and commentators have played a role in its evolution. Drastic reduction in energy consumption was a key change expected in the Marj update, which reduced Ethereum’s energy consumption by 99%.

Sarge (Surge) is the next stage of this process; An important step that will increase the scalability of blockchain for data storage and access. Followed by updates Verj (Verge), Parj (Purge) and splurge (Splurge) are located; The last three steps in Ethereum’s current development path are set to take place over the next few years.