Core Ethereum developers have chosen to prioritize enabling staking withdrawals via the Shanghai Update before implementing The Surge-related Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP)-4884.
As Cointelegraph reports, The next key milestone on the Ethereum roadmap is the Shanghai update, which will, among other things, allow ETH stakers/validators to withdraw money from the Beacon Chain.
EIP-4884 is also important and was initially expected to be packaged with Shanghai, introducing “proto-danksharding” to significantly improve the scalability of the Layer 2 rollup (The Surge). before the full implementation of the big Sharding update at the end of next year.
Nevertheless, according to Tim Beiko, Ethereum developer, At the last Ethereum core developer meeting, held on December 8, the final consensus was to focus on Shanghai first to avoid potential delays if EIP-4844 was not ready on time.
In a summary thread on Twitter, Beiko noted that everyone agreed on “(1) Shanghai happening quickly, ideally around March, and (2) following this up with a hard fork focused on EIP-4844.”
Although EIP-4844 will not be included, The developers have agreed to include a set of EIPs that essentially update the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), including the introduction of a new EVM contract format, code/data separations, and new opcodes.
Beiko pointed out that as these updates, known as EVM Object Format (EOF), are fairly easy to pull and remove from Shanghai, if the developers haven’t finished working on them by the time Shanghai is ready for deployment, then EOF will simply be removed and shipped further afternoon.
Also, a set of previously agreed EIPs will be deployed together with Shanghai, and the list includes EIP-3651: Warm Coinbase, EIP-3855: Instruction PUSH0, EIP-3860: Limit and meter initcode, and EIP-4895: Beacon chain push withdrawals as operations.
So, that’s where we landed for Shanghai: Withdrawals, EOF & a few already implemented EIPs (PUSH0, Warm COINBASE, Limit/Meter initcode) are what we will go for. If by January, we don’t meet the EOF milestones mentioned above, we’ll remove it from Shanghai so withdrawals ship ASAP
— timbeiko.eth (@TimBeiko) December 8, 2022
So that’s where we are regarding Shanghai: Withdrawals, EOF and some EIP already in place (PUSH0, Warm COINBASE, Limit/Meter initcode) is what we’re aiming for. If by January we do not meet the EOF milestones mentioned above, we will remove you from Shanghai so that withdrawals can be sent as soon as possible.
EIP-3651: Warm Coinbase in particular will potentially have some cost reduction benefits for the network. Not to be confused with the name of the crypto exchange; Coinbase in this context refers to the name of the software that builders use to receive new tokens on the network.
Each new transaction on the platform needs to interact with the Coinbase software multiple times; however, initial transactions start out more expensives, since Coinbase essentially needs time to warm up.
With the new implementation of EIP, this will no longer be the case and therefore gas fees will be reduced when builders interact with it.
According to the Ethereum Foundation, Sharding is a multi-phase upgrade designed to significantly increase the “scalability and capacity” of Ethereum through the implementation of shard chains, which will give the network significantly “more capacity to store and access data.”
With the improvement of data storage capabilities, this will essentially allow layer 2 solutions to offer much lower transaction fees.
Once all this is done, The next big event for the network and final part of the roadmap is the Sharding upgrade, which is expected to roll out in 2023 and 2024.
Clarification: The information and/or opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the views or editorial line of Cointelegraph. The information presented here should not be taken as financial advice or investment recommendation. All investment and commercial movement involve risks and it is the responsibility of each person to do their due research before making an investment decision.
Keep reading:
Investments in crypto assets are not regulated. They may not be suitable for retail investors and the entire amount invested may be lost. The services or products offered are not directed or accessible to investors in Spain.
