Ethereum Stacking Testnet Zhejiang to go online Feb. 1

According to Jan. 31 Posts by Ethereum Foundation Developer Parithosh Jayanthi, Public Pull Test Network “Zhejiang” Will Do launch in feb. 1 at 3:00 pm UTC. Six days after Zhejiang, the Shanghai and Capella test networks will also be run in the 1350 era. Jianthi noted:

“This is also a great opportunity for all the tools to test how they want to collect, display and use withdrawal information. You could try converting 0x00 credentials to 0x01 and assigning a withdrawal address. You could test partial withdrawals and full withdrawals by exiting your validator.”

The Shanghai Upgrade, when fully implemented, will allow users to withdraw their Ether (ETH) assets and rewards. Since the successful Ethereum Merge upgrade in September 2020, users have been able to share ETH on the Proof of Stake network. However, the funds are still locked, pending a new patch.

The public test network will be deployed in Zhejiang tomorrow (February 1st 15:00 UTC, 2023). Shanghai + Capella will run in 6 days (in the era of 1350). You will be able to deposit validators, practice BLS change and exit risk free. All links here: https://t.co/XNlsDIG0cm pic.twitter.com/sKKDJmolt2

– Barnabas Busa January 31, 2023

According to fellow Ethereum developer Barnabas Busa, Zhejiang will be the first public testnet to launch after the Merge upgrade. Although still in beta, the full withdrawal source code has been published on the Ethereum website.

Related: Ethereum developers target March 2023 for Shanghai hard fork

Developers at the Ethereum Foundation have been targeting a tentative date of March 2023 for the long-awaited Shanghai hardcode. In addition, the upcoming Zhejiang testnet will also contain all of the Ethereum Improvement Protocols (EIPs) included in the Shanghai upgrade, such as timestamp-based scattering.

After Shanghai, the next upgrade on the developers’ roadmap is EIP-4844, which will be released in May or June this year. Experts say that EIP-4844 can increase layer-2 scalability on Ethereum by 100x factors and lower transaction fees.