Developers will be able to test the implementation of staked ether withdrawals and other future Ethereum development phases on the Shandong testnet.
On the brand-new “Shandong” test network, Ethereum developers can begin putting their upcoming protocol changes to the test (testnet).
Shandong will serve as the testnet for the Shanghai upgrade, which is anticipated to take place sometime in 2023. Since the Merge in September, when Ethereum switched from a proof-of-work consensus process to a proof-of-stake model, it will be Ethereum’s first upgrade since then.
The efficiency and scalability issues that are currently being investigated for inclusion in Shanghai may be resolved by several Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIP). EIP 4895, which will enable those who have invested ether (ETH) on the Beacon Chain to withdraw their stake as well as any awards they have accrued over time, is possibly the most eagerly awaited proposal.
Anyone that staked ether as part of the Beacon Chain’s validator procedure is currently unable to directly withdraw their stake or their rewards. Anyone attempting to access such funds, however, has been forced to rely on liquidity tokens that represent their holdings.
EIP 4844, which introduces proto-danksharding, is also being considered. The network will be able to handle more data thanks to this idea, which would result in lower gas prices.
EIP 3540 will cover the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), the program that powers Ethereum smart contracts, and is connected to one of the EIPs covered by Ethereum’s London update (EIP 3541). Code and data may be segregated with the help of this proposal, which will also make it simpler to alter EVM in the future.
“The Shandong testnet is meant to give developers a chance to try out the potential EIPs to find issues.” according to Parithosh Jayanthi, a DevOps engineer at the Ethereum Foundation, to CoinDesk.
It will take some time to compile the list of EIPs that will be taken into account for the Shanghai upgrade. When the All Core Developers calls resume, Jayanthi predicted that it would be a hot topic.