Ethereum Shanghai Moves Forward, But Core Dev Sees “Road Yet Long”

On the verge of the launch of the Shanghai Capella testnet by Ethereum developers this week, the Consensus Layer (CL) client teams discussed the progress of testing the upgrade on an All Core Developers Consensus Call (ACDC).

Ethereum’s development team began testing a Maximum Extracted Value (MEV) Boost, an open-source middleware run by validators to access a competitive block-building market. The MEV-Boost allows validators to access blocks from a marketplace of builders.

Built by the research organization, Flashbots, as an implementation of the Prosperity Builder Separation (PBS) for the proof-of-stake blockchain supporting the Ethereum network.

The Shanghai upgrade has been activated, along with the Zheijang testnet and Devnet7. Tim Beiko, an Ethereum core developer, published a blog announcing the dates and final client releases for the Shanghai activation and the Sepolia testnet. Beiko stated:

After months of testing and an ephemeral devnet launch, the Shanghai/Capella (a.k.a. Shapella) network upgrade is now scheduled for deployment on Sepolia. This upgrade follows The Merge and enables validators to withdraw their stake from the Beacon Chain back to the execution layer.

Ethereum Has A Road Yet Long For Growth

Ethereum Foundation researcher and network upgrade coordinator Danny Ryan has recently published a blog stating that despite “The Merge” and the recent upgrades deployed on the network, Ethereum still has a long way to go. Ryan said:

Take a brief look at Vitalik’s roadmap document, and you cannot help but feel the dizzying weight of the many long and complex years (5, 10?) ahead until the protocol is “done.”

According to Ryan, Ethereum’s development team is tasked with finding the “sufficient end state” for a functional, secure, and decentralized blockchain, which means providing secure enough services for the clients and users of the Ethereum protocol. 

Although Ethereum has started the year with big steps in terms of development and offering a safer ecosystem for customers, Ryan suggests a complex and long roadmap ahead, with “immediate technological concerns” to fix on the network. 

As for planning for Deneb, which comes after the Shanghai-Capella upgrade for the protocol, the CL clients team has released a new post for the upcoming upgrade, which includes cryptography and new test cases. 

Danny Ryan also admitted that the ongoing work on the protocol aims to remove extra code logic for handling empty blob transactions, which contain a large amount of data that cannot be accessed by the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). Danny Ryan concluded:

In short, Ethereum stands stronger than ever. The community building the core infrastructure, the community layering in scaling, and the community building on top are astounding to be a part of and to observe. But, there are still major challenges; there are still immense risks.

Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency in the market by market capitalization, is currently trading at the $1,600 level, representing a decline in its price of 2.8% in the last 24 hours. 

In the seven-day time frame, ETH is down 2.1%, and in the longer term, ETH seems to be staying at the same level as the January uptrend, with gains of 3.5% in the last 30 days.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView.