Ethereum’s Shapella upgrade set to go live today April 12; to unlock access to over $30 billion in digital tokens

The highly anticipated Ethereum’s Shapella upgrade is finally here. Ethereum, the blockchain that underpins the world’s second-largest crypto token ether, is set to undergo its next major update since the network switched from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake through The Merge last September.

The scheduled Shapella upgrade combines the Shanghai and Capella validator changes, is expected to take place today Wednesday, April 12, 2023. While most Ethereum users may not be impacted by the change, the upgrade will unlock access to more than $30 billion of the digital tokens.

The hard fork will allow staking validators to withdraw their staked Ethereum. Shapella upgrade will also enable crypto investors to redeem their staked ether” tokens that they have deposited in return for interest on the blockchain network over the past three years. According to data firm Dune Analytics, The staked tokens currently account for about 15% of all ether tokens and are worth some $31 billion.

According to a tweet by Tim Beiko of the Ethereum Foundation, the upgrade is due today at around 2230 GMT.

“After a smooth Goerli transition, client teams have scheduled the Shapella upgrade for mainnet activation,” the Ethereum Foundation detailed on March 28, 2023. “Consensus was quickly reached on an April 12th date during the 157th All Core Devs Execution Layer meeting. This upgrade follows The Merge and enables validators to withdraw their stake from the Beacon chain back to the execution layer. It also introduces new functionality to both the execution and consensus layer.”

https://twitter.com/TimBeiko/status/1640722906744487936?

In a blog post, Ethereum Foundation said the latest “upgrade follows The Merge and enables validators to withdraw their stake from the Beacon Chain back to the execution layer. It also introduces new functionality to both the execution and consensus layer, described below.”

Below is a quick highlights of the upgrade.

• Withdrawals are coming! The Shapella network upgrade will activate on the Ethereum network at epoch 194048, scheduled for 22:27:35 UTC on Apr. 12, 2023
• Stakers & node operators should read this post as well as the Withdrawals FAQ
• From now until April 5th, the Ethereum Bug Bounty rewards have been doubled for Shapella vulnerabilities
• You can now sign up to receive emails for these upgrade announcements. Scroll to the bottom of the page to do so.

“After a smooth Goerli transition, client teams have scheduled the Shapella upgrade for mainnet activation. Consensus was quickly reached on an April 12th date during the 157th AllCoreDevs Execution Layer meeting,”  Ethereum Foundation said.

The upcoming Shapella upgrade is the second major upgrade since the foundation last upgrade in Septemeber which drastically reduced its energy usage – a move that supporters said would give Ethereum an edge over bitcoin.

Meanwhile, even with the upgrade, Ether still lags behind rival Bitcoin, gaining just under 60% in 2023 versus a more than 80% jump for the world’s most popular currency.