Tim Beiko, a core developer on the Ethereum project, has announced that the Shapella (Shanghai/Capella) update will go live on February 28. At epoch 56832, the Shapella upgrade to the Sepolia network will become operational.
Ethereum's next hard forks are codenamed Shanghai and Capella. Execution client fork is known as Shanghai, whereas consensus layer client upgrade is known as Capella.
Important modifications to the consensus layer include separate state and block historical accumulators in place of the original unique historical origins, as well as complete and partial validator withdrawals.
In order to continue validating, validators can take a portion of their Ether ticker down rewards (any amount above 32 Ether) and withdraw it without stopping their validation. In the event that they no longer wish to validate, validators can completely depart by withdrawing 32 Ether and any incentives they have accrued.
On the execution layer, Warm Coinbase and Beacon chain push withdrawals are two of the most important Ethereum enhancement proposals (EIPs). With the introduction of a new "system-level" operation type, validator withdrawals from the beacon chain to the EVM will replace the current "push withdrawals."
But, WARM Coinbase may be a game-changer if it succeeds in lowering network fees for builders, a category of crucial network members.
Here, builders utilize a program called Coinbase to acquire additional tokens from the network. It takes numerous transactions with the Coinbase software for a new transaction to go through. The initial interaction is more expensive since the software has to "warm up," but subsequent interactions cost less.
With the implementation of EIP-3651, however, the Coinbase software will be kept warm to begin with, meaning a reduced gas price will be required to access it.
By staking Ether (ETH) on the Beacon Chain, validators will be able to move their funds to the execution layer once the upgrade is complete. It is a crucial update after The Merge since it will bring about improvements to the execution layer and the consensus layer, hence bringing new features.
To take use of the Sepolia upgrade, however, it is necessary for all node operators (stakers and non-stakers alike) to update to the latest versions of the Ethereum client software.
Next, in March, the Shanghai upgrade will be released on the Ethereum Goerli test network, after the March deployment of the Sepolia upgrade.
