Upcoming Upgrades That Will Shape the Ethereum Ecosystem
Here are some approaching dates and launches that Ethereum followers and observers should keep an eye on.
The Shanghai upgrade is drawing near
The Shanghai upgrade, more accurately known as “Shapella,” will enable the release of staked ether (ETH) withdrawals. Ever since Ethereum transitioned to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism, the network began using validators who stake 32 ETH to approve and add blocks to the blockchain.
The Shanghai upgrade is drawing near
The Shanghai upgrade, more accurately known as “Shapella,” will enable the release of staked ether (ETH) withdrawals. Ever since Ethereum transitioned to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism, the network began using validators who stake 32 ETH to approve and add blocks to the blockchain.
Optimism to upgrade to Bedrock
Optimism, an Ethereum layer 2 scaling system, will go through a major upgrade in March that aims to decrease transaction fees, increase the speed of transactions and enhance smoother compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).
The layer 2 protocol aims to lower the cost of Ethereum transactions while maintaining the security of the Ethereum blockchain. It does this by providing an “Optimistic rollup,” a type of scaling system that bundles a bunch of transactions and sends them back to the Ethereum blockchain as a single transaction. The cost of that one transaction is then split among many users.
The upgrade, known as “Bedrock,” will be a major upgrade to the network. Some have said the upgrade will help Optimism compete with its main competitor, Arbitrum.
Optimism initially tweeted in early February that it was reviewing the specifications for the Bedrock upgrade, scheduled for March 15. But, a few weeks later, the Optimism Foundation announced it would postpone the vote on the upgrade to March 2–April 5 due to some bugs found in the code changes.
The ZK-rollup race intensifies
Another scaling project to Ethereum, Polygon, is coming out with its own rollup system in March.
Polygon has been working on its own Zero-Knowledge Rollup (ZK Rollup) for a while, and in February announced the launch date of its beta zkEVM for March 27.
ZK rollups use complex cryptography that create “proofs” that show that a transaction is valid using only minimal information about that transaction. The zkEVM deploys the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) for its ZK rollup, allowing developers to move over their Ethereum smart contracts without any hiccups.
ZK technology was once seen as a milestone that would be years away, but others in the ZK rollup space are racing to be the first to launch their rollup solutions.
Matter Labs recently announced that it would rebrand and make open source its ZK rollup, zkSync 2.0, to zkSync Era, though it did not say when the full network would go live. Developers of Scroll, another layer 2 on Ethereum, have also said they are coming out with their own ZK rollup. Earlier this week, Scroll announced it is taking the zkEVM to Ethereum’s Goerli testnet.