Last Friday (6), Ethereum developers had a meeting to define the schedule for Shanghai, the new network update. According to the group’s decision, the new hard fork should take place between February and early March. The release of the new update will take place in two parts. First up will be the Shanghai test network, expected to arrive in early February. Finally, if the tests go as expected, the final update should take place in early March. Furthermore, the developers have confirmed that the update will focus on releasing staked Ether (ETH) withdrawals. At the time of writing this text, users only accumulate ETH and its earnings, but cannot withdraw them. Therefore, the developers claim that this will be the top priority, even ahead of codes and other developments. That is, incorporating a set of additional features is out of the question. “The developers intend to launch public testnets for the Shanghai/Capella update next month and tentatively schedule a mainnet launch for the update in March 2023.”
Debate on EOF
While the priority is to authorize withdrawals and ETH, Shanghai also has other parallel developments. One is the removal of the EVM Object Format, or EOF. Essentially, EOF introduces several modifications to the Ethereum code execution environment. However, the developers working on the EOF implementation met twice over the holidays to discuss its specifications. After the meeting they agreed to remove EIP 6206 due to its complexity and make the data section in these EIPs mandatory. The objective is to increase the simplicity of data analysis and, therefore, prevent the measure from hindering the release of withdrawals.
EIP-4844 and new transactions
Another controversial proposal present in Shanghai is EIP-4844, which introduces a new type of transaction type into the network. It accepts “blobs” of data placed on Beacon nodes for a short period of time and is not permanently recorded on the blockchain. In other words, EIP-4844 reduces the amount of data in transactions and on the Ethereum network. So the idea of the proposal is to facilitate an ecosystem-wide shift to rollups, but also focus on significantly reducing fees. On the other hand, the move aims to allow Ethereum to remain competitive without sacrificing decentralization. The debate surrounding looting has received significant attention. Developers consider this a priority, but such an opinion is not unanimous. For certain developers, like Péter Szilágyi, EIP-4844 is more important than the deadline and withdrawals. “Withdrawals do absolutely nothing to make Ethereum better, but with EIP-4844 you really have the ability to make it better,” Szilágyi said.
Vitalik’s vision
But for many, including Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin, letting the target slip is not an option. Therefore, Buterin is in the group of those who defend giving priority to looting. Expressing his thoughts on the EOF update, Buterin proposed banning “code introspection”, which essentially refers to the ability to run code to inspect or examine other code that is also running on the EVM. This is expected to develop into more complex contracts that depend on the characteristics of other contracts. But Buterin pointed out that no other features will be introduced with Shanghai other than authorizing withdrawals. EOF could be coupled with EIP-4844 and shipped three or four months later in a new update.
