Thanks to its core developers, the long-awaited Ethereum Shanghai hard fork now has an April 12th target date. Developers will formally announce the deadline on GitHub at 10:27:35 UTC.
After the Shanghai update, validators can withdraw their staked Ether and any rewards they got for adding or approving blocks to the blockchain, effectively converting Ethereum to a proof-of-stake [PoS] network.
The Shapella hard fork has allowed staked ETH withdrawals and was tested on the Goerli testnet. Ethereum recently implemented this as part of its Shanghai upgrade test run.
It took 15 epochs for Shapella to fork onto the Goerli testnet, according to “terence.eth,” and since network participation was not at the required two-thirds level:
The final dress rehearsal also ran into some problems. Because numerous testnet validators only upgraded their client software after the Goerli fork, there was a delay in the deposit procedure.
Parithosh Jayanthi, a different Ethereum foundation developer, pointed out that the attestation rate increased and is currently finalizing once the problems with the validators running earlier versions of clients were fixed.
The Shanghai mainnet upgrade will feature five Ethereum Improvement Proposals, including EIP-4985. This proposal enables staked Ether withdrawals on the Beacon Chain and completes Ethereum’s shift from PoW to PoS.
Regulators have taken notice of ETH’s shift to PoS, which resembles bond interest payments. This change allows investors to “stake” their tokens and receive incentives, leading to increased scrutiny.
The Rise Of Ethereum Staking Draws Regulatory Attention
SEC’s Gensler said ETH might be a security, but a New York regulator’s charge reignited the legal dispute.
New York Attorney General Letitia James sued KuCoin, a Seychelles-based crypto exchange, on March 9th. The exchange faced accusations in the lawsuit of selling unregistered securities, including Ether.
The Commodities Futures Trading Commission and other state and federal organizations have long viewed Ethereum as a commodity.
Categorizing the asset as a security would drastically change how the US trades it and similar assets, significantly impacting the cryptocurrency market. This would affect the asset’s liquidity, regulatory requirements, and investor participation, among other things.
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