In a call on January 5, Ethereum (ETH) developers reached consensus for March 2023 as the tentative target for the Shanghai hard fork. The only significant code change in the Shanghai upgrade will focus on the ability for validators to withdraw staked ETH. The developers decided on the call.
The developers hoped to incorporate a set of Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) called EVM Object Format (EOF) into the Shanghai upgrade, but decided against it in the last call. During the call, developers working on EOF testing said including EOF would mean pushing the hard fork back at least a month.
EOF would introduce a new contract format for the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), which supports decentralized applications and smart contract functionality. Implementing EOF would revamp Ethereum’s transaction format to differentiate between smart contract code and data. It would also make EVM more easily scalable in the future.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin was also concerned about the implications of rushing the implementation of EOF. He said:
“In EVM, it’s much more difficult to remove things than to remove other features. If we want to create a new EVM version, this new EVM version should be designed with the idea of being very compatible with all kinds of upgrades that we want to do in the future.
In December, the developers agreed that enabling staked ETH withdrawals would be the highest priority for Q1 2023. Therefore, the developers decided to exclude EOF to avoid delays in ETH withdrawal timelines staked out.
Ethereum developers have decided to reevaluate whether to include EOF with the proto-danksharding upgrade in a few weeks, which will likely be rolled out 3-4 months after Shanghai.
The uncertainty regarding the unlock period for staked ETH has created a lot of concern among investors, who have started to wonder about the future of the network. Allowing withdrawals will therefore bring much-needed relief to ETH stakers. Some analysts, however, predict that the detachment event could lead to a mass exodus and create strong selling pressure on ETH, driving down the price of the asset.
At the time of writing, 15.88 million ETH – worth around $20 billion – was staked on the network, according to the Ethereum Foundation. Data.
