Ethereum Shanghai Upgrade Scheduled For Goerli Test On Mar. 14

Summary:

• Ethereum developers agreed to test the Shanghai or Shapella update on Goerli on March 14.
• Goerli marks the largest and final public testnet to mimic withdrawals for staked Ether before the upgrade goes live on ETH’s mainnet.
• Developers hinted that the upgrade’s mainnet launch could happen slightly later than expected, in the second week of April.

During a bi-weekly call, developers agreed to test the Shanghai upgrade on Ethereum’s largest public testnet Goerli by mid-March. Indeed, core Ethereum devs picked March 14 as the day for the final Shanghai-Capella or Shapella rehearsal. 

The upgrade well-known as Shanghai by crypto proponents comprises two updates to ETH’s proof-of-stake beacon chain. Shanghai will upgrade the execution layer and Capella will target ETH’s consensus layer developers previously explained Together, the Shanghai or Shapella upgrade promises to unlock roughly 16.5 million ETH locked up by validators. 

Goerli is the third public testnet to run the Shapella upgrade. Recently, developers trialed staked ETH withdrawals on the Sepolia testnet. The test was successful and the update ran without a hitch on Tuesday, per previous reports. Before Sepolia, the Zhejiang testnet ran Shapella with a few bugs noticed by developers. These bugs were later fixed on Sepolia. 

Another successful test run of Shapella on Goerli will bring Ethereum closer to enabling withdrawal for staked ETH. While users previously expected the mainnet launch to happen in March, Goerli scheduled dress rehearsal changes things. 

Instead, developers hinted that the mainnet launch could happen three to four weeks after Goerli’s test. This suggested that Shanghai could go live on ETH’s mainnet around the second or third week of April 2022. 

Ethereum’s Native Token Ranges Between $1500-$1700

After a blitz pump throughout January, ETH has traded in a range between $1500 and $1700. The token has traded in a similar range with leading crypto Bitcoin which has also traded within a $2,000 range. 

ETH traded above $1600 and was just over 2% down on Thursday. Analysts opined that once uncertainty around staked ETH and staked ETH liquidity is removed, ETH’s price could finish above $2500 by December 2023.

Other industry experts adopted a bearish outlook, predicting that the leading altcoin could finish 2023 below $2000 due to regulatory turbulence in the U.S. and global macro conditions.