Ethereum Shanghai: Mainnet Shadow Fork Now Deployed

Ethereum blockchain is set to get the functionality of letting stakers withdraw their tokens with its upcoming Shanghai update. The shadow mainnet for this upgrade has been successfully deployed, developers working on it confirmed on January 23. This shadow fork will be used to test if the upgraded blockchain is capable of allowing the withdrawal of ETH, staked on the network. The upgrade is slated to go live in full force around March this year.

Before making the upgrade live, developers need to be sure that it is free from any bugs or glitches that could affect its operations upon final deployment and that is where this shadow fork will come-in handy.

Ethereum developer who goes by the Twitter handle of @vdWijden, confirmed the development while also revealing that the shadow fork did encounter some technical snags.

Last year, the Ethereum blockchain transitioned from its proof-of-work (PoW) mining model to the energy-efficient proof-of-stake (PoS) model. The name of this revamped network is Merge.

In PoS, blockchain validators stake their personal Ether tokens to create new blocks and verify transactions. In return, stakers get interest and other rewards on their staked tokens.

It is estimated that $22.38 billion (roughly Rs. 1,82,520 crore) worth of Ether tokens are currently staked on the blockchain.

Once the Shanghai upgrade goes live, it will allow Ethereum validators to choose if they want to keep their tokens staked or withdraw them.

Ethereum developers are reportedly looking to launch a public testnet for the Shanghai update in February.

In the coming months, the blockchain will continue to get upgrades to address key challenges.

Earlier this week, Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum said that ‘stealth addresses’ could be a potential solution that could safeguard all the information that is saved on Ethereum, which is a public blockchain. These stealth addresses can add anonymity to the peer-to-peer transactions of digital assets.