For the much-awaited Shanghai network update, which will enable staked ETH to be withdrawn, Ethereum (ETH) core developers are now setting a March deadline.
Tim Beiko, the primary developer for Ethereum, indicated that permitting staking withdrawals is “obviously the biggest priority for everyone” on a recent development call.
Ethereum core developers decided on a possible March timeframe for releasing the Shanghai update, which is required to support withdrawals, during the call.
Beiko followed up in a tweet on Thursday, noting that given the Shanghai upgrade’s current high priority, a few EIPs (Ethereum Improvement Proposals) that were supposed to be included in it may have to wait if they are not prepared.
We’ll remove it from Shanghai, so withdrawals ship as soon as possible if by January we haven’t achieved the EOF objectives listed above, Beiko tweeted. The Ethereum Object Format (EOF) modernises the Ethereum Virtual Machine’s (EVM) functionality.
Is It Critical For the Price Of Ethereum?
On the new Proof-of-Stake (PoS) network, more than 15.5 million ETH tokens have been reserved for staking, accounting for about 13% of all ETH in circulation.
Up to 4.5% in yearly dividends are now available to ETH investors, but they cannot unstake and withdraw their tokens until the Shanghai upgrade is finished.
An key step in Ethereum’s growth and switch to the Proof-of-Stake consensus process is allowing withdrawals for staked ETH. It is anticipated that the action would draw more stakers to the Ethereum network, which may ultimately help the price of ETH.
It’s important to note that Ethereum developers have already missed deadlines for significant network updates on a number of times. The market will thus probably treat the March deadline for the Shanghai upgrade with caution for the time being.
Although the completion of the eagerly awaited proof-of-stake Merge update on September 15, staked Ether (stETH) is currently locked. Nearly 3.5 million stETH ($4.48 billion) of the token, developed by the decentralised financial system Lido, are now in use.
Users of stETH may only withdraw their money following the Shanghai upgrade, including any relevant staking incentives for confirming network transactions.
According to the Ethereum Foundation, this organisational strategy was used to “simplify and optimise attention on a smooth transition to proof-of-stake” throughout the upgrades.
The EIP-4844 update is intended to deploy a new data-blob-transaction prototype initially created by developers on February 21, 2022, following the hard fork.
The capacity of rollups is expected to increase by up to 100x with the introduction of big portable bundles that may hold cheaper data in Ethereum transactions. While the change will reduce transaction costs for layer-2 solutions, it will not impact the Ethereum gas cost.
In December of last year, Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, stated that his ultimate goal was for the blockchain to serve as an essential foundation and for users to feel “completely comfortable putting their assets in a ZK [zero knowledge]-rollup running a full EVM [Ethereum Virtual Machine].”