Overview

• Ethereum developers are launching the Shanghai Capella testnet this week.
• The MEV-Boost will allow validators to access blocks from a marketplace of builders.
• Ethereum still has a long way to go and has many technological concerns to fix.

Shanghai Upgrade

Ethereum developers are about to launch the Shanghai Capella testnet this week. The Consensus Layer (CL) client teams discussed the progress of testing the upgrade on an All Core Developers Consensus Call (ACDC). Ethereum’s development team began testing a Maximum Extracted Value (MEV) Boost, an open-source middleware run by validators to access a competitive block-building market. The MEV-Boost allows validators to access blocks from a marketplace of builders built by the research organization, Flashbots, as an implementation of the Prosperity Builder Separation (PBS) for the proof-of-stake blockchain supporting the Ethereum network.

Tim Beiko Update

Tim Beiko, an Ethereum core developer, published a blog announcing the dates and final client releases for the Shanghai activation and the Sepolia testnet. Beiko stated: After months of testing and an ephemeral devnet launch, the Shanghai/Capella (a.k.a. Shapella) network upgrade is now scheduled for deployment on Sepolia. This upgrade follows The Merge and enables validators to withdraw their stake from the Beacon Chain back to the execution layer.

Danny Ryan Blog Post

Ethereum Foundation researcher and network upgrade coordinator Danny Ryan recently published a blog stating that despite “The Merge” and recent upgrades deployed on Ethereum’s network, it still has a long way to go before its protocol is complete. According to Ryan, Ethereum’s development team is tasked with finding sufficient end state for a functional, secure, and decentralized blockchain, which means providing secure enough services for clients and users of the Ethereum protocol. Even though there have been big steps taken in terms of development this year he suggests that there is still complex work ahead with plenty of technological concerns that need addressing before it can be considered done.

Conclusion

To conclude, while Ethereum has made some impressive strides in 2020 with upgrades such as The Merge and Shanghai activation it is still far from being considered “done”. There are many challenges that remain unresolved such as security concerns as well as ensuring efficient services are provided for users on their platform before they can consider themselves finished with their work on this project.