What Was the Ethereum Shanghai Upgrade?
The Ethereum Shanghai hard fork upgrade in March 2023 was designed to give Ethereum cryptocurrency network users access to their staked ether (ETH) funds for the first time since The Merge, the update that transitioned the blockchain to proof-of-stake in 2022.
Ethereum is a decentralized global software platform powered byblockchain technology that has been advancing at a steady pace since its launch in 2015.
Key Takeaways
- The Ethereum cryptocurrency network’s Shanghai upgrade was a hard fork released in March 2023.
- The Shanghai upgrade let holders of ether (ETH), Ethereum’s native token, unstake the assets, giving them access to their holdings.
- Ethereum surpassed 550,000 validators, which was a large number considering that their ETH was locked up.
Ethereum Pre-Shanghai History
It’s important to understand the history of events at Ethereum before diving into the Shanghai upgrade. This major upgrade was, after all, one of several sequential updates designed to help developers and the community reach their vision for the network.
Ethereum started with proof-of-work (PoW), where a competition to find a solution to a cryptographic puzzle serves as proof that the work was done to validate transactions. Proof-of-stake (PoS), a mechanic where only users with a stake in the process could become validators, was always part of the long-term plan.
InSeptember 2022, The Merge joined Ethereum’sPoSBeacon Chain with the Ethereum Mainnet to transition the Ethereumblockchainoff the legacy PoWsystem.
The Merge gave birth toa new version of Ethereum that reduced energy consumption by 99.95% and set the groundwork for the team to further scale the ecosystem.
The Shanghai Upgrade
Staker's assets were previously allocated toward Ethereum’s proof-of-stake (PoS) Beacon Chain network. The update allowed ETH holders to stake their tokens without locking them up indefinitely, perform transaction validations, and receive rewards of newly created tokens.
The scheduled March 2023 launch was preceded by the Shandong network test, or testnet, in 2022. Shanghai comprised several upgrades, but the most impactful one allowed ETH stakers to remove their staked ETH and accrue rewards. This was a point of frustration for many Ethereum users and was suggested in Ethereum Improvement Proposal 4895 (EIP-4895).
More than 14 million ETH were staked after The Merge, but by March 2023, there were nearly 18 million staked from about 560,000 validators—which was about 11% of the total circulating supply.
In the Shanghai upgrade, developers imposed a cap of about 43,200 ETH per day for withdrawal amounts after the upgrade so that there wouldn’t be a large migration of validators out of the network.
The Shanghai upgrade also included several other proposals related to the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) Object Format (EOF). This was a software component of all EVM-compatible blockchains that contained more than 120 operation codes, giving decentralized programmability to blockchains that desired compatibility.
Note
One of the underlying goals of continued Ethereum development is to create a global virtual machine that will serve as the platform on which Web3 is built.
What Does the Future Hold for Ethereum?
Ethereum’s future amounts to much more than its switch to proof-of-stake and other upgrades for scalability and performance. The Shanghai upgrade was one of many that will bring the blockchain and ecosystem to the eventual goal of being a global virtual machine that powers the next iteration of the Internet and finances.
Investors may soon be able to trade eight spot ether ETFs as the Securities Exchange Commission in May 2024 approved a rule change allowing for the listing and trading of these ETFs.
Ethereum developers are working on solutions to lower fees and increase transaction approvals. In March 2024, the blockchain hard-forked again in an upgrade that introduced proto-danksharding, a temporary protocol that reduces the costs of second-layer rollups. Proto-danksharding will be replaced by danksharding in a future update. It is believed that this update will allow the blockchain and network to process millions of transactions per second and scale as needed.
What Was the Shanghai Upgrade?
The Shanghai upgrade was a series of small improvements to the Ethereum blockchain that induced a hard fork. Along with several other small improvements, the upgrade allowed users who had staked their ETH to unstake and use their coins after a specific period.
What Is the Next Upgrade After Shanghai Ethereum?
The Shanghai upgrade was followed by Cancun-Deneb, which focused on improving consensus and scalability. This update also introduced proto-danksharding, a concept that reduced the cost of storage for rollups and set the stage for other upgrades.
Was the Shanghai Upgrade Bullish or Bearish?
The Shanghai upgrade was bullish for Ethereum. The move increased incentives for ETH liquidity providers by stimulating innovation, making ETH stronger, and strengthening ownership of assets.
The Bottom Line
Ethereum enthusiasts welcomed the changes included in the Shanghai upgrade. It was a relatively small step for the project, but like most Ethereum updates, it paved the way for many more significant adjustments.
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