The Shapella update, is set for launch on the Ethereum chain on April 12. In the 157th AllCoreDevs Execution Layer meeting, the ETH community finalized the upgrade date, wich is the final step that would allow validators to unstake ETH locked on the Beacon chain.
Moreover, the announcement of the Shapella upgrade followed shortly after the developers deployed the Shapella forks on the Goerli and Sepolia testnets. The previous update, the Merge, merged the EVM and the Beacon chain, changing the consensus mechanism to proof-of-stake.
Shapella Update is Almost Here!
As per the blog post of Ethereum, the upgrade would occur at network epoch 194,048. An epoch in Ethereum can be classified as a bundle of 32 blocks on the network, and the epoch under discussion is expected to happen at 10:27 pm UTC on April 12.
The Shapella update is a combination of Shanghai and Capella upgrades. The Shanghai upgrade is mainly for the consensus layer, whereas Capella’s main purpose revolved around the execution layer.
All possible withdrawals would be enabled and backed up by the Ethereum Improvement Proposal EIP-4895 by pushing the staked ETH on the Beacon chain to the EVM. Keeping in mind how the hard fork would allow seamless partial and full withdrawals, a number of mechanisms are placed to control the flow of ETH.
Despite the Shapella upgrade representing a huge milestone for the Ethereum network, it still suffers from low transaction throughput. However, Shapella has a number of improvements in store that are aimed at optimizing transaction fees, and these updates have been tested on different testnets.
The current upgrade is expected to run till April 5. The bug bounty has recently been doubled to a sum of up to $500,000 for anyone who discovers a bug in the Shapella upgrade. The award pool will depend on the nature of the bug discovered.
ETH Price Expectations Following the Shapella Upgrade
Many experts and analysts believe that the trading price of ETH would go upward soon after the launch of the Shapella upgrade. However, a similar trend was proposed last year during Ethereum’s highly anticipated Merge. But the coin fell sharply after the update.
Moreover, the current market scenario clouds any prediction for the coin’s price. At the time of writing, ETH is trading for approximately $1,781 after an increase of 3.96% in the previous 24 hours. The total market cap of the leading altcoin is almost $217 billion.
The masses currently believe that the Shapella upgrade will serve as a bullish catalyst, eventually boosting the price of ETH past the $2,000 mark. The ETH community believes that it just might be the right chance to invest in the coin. However, they must consider the ongoing scenario in the crypto market to make an informed decision. Since the lawsuit against Binance, the crypto market has turned red. Thus, the upgrade is coming at a crucial level for ETH and the overall market.
