Margaux Nijkerk
Margaux Nijkerk reports on blockchain protocols with a focus on the Ethereum ecosystem. A graduate of Johns Hopkins and Emory universities, she has a masters in International Affairs & Economics. She holds a very small amount of ETH and other altcoins.
Ethereum developers have started to refer to the blockchain’s upcoming hard fork – in this case a key upgrade – as “Shapella.”
It’s confusing, since crypto traders, analysts and industry executives have mostly referred to the hard fork – expected by next month – as “Shanghai.”
First things first: Technically it’s not wrong to call it the “Shanghai” upgrade.
But it’s tricky.
The Ethereum protocol is made up of two layers: the execution layer and consensus layer.
The reason this matters – in the context of what to call the Ethereum upgrade – is that it goes by different names on each layer. The execution layer will undergo the “Shanghai” upgrade, while on the consensus layer, it’s known as “Capella.” So developers are cleverly referring to the whole thing as “Shapella.”
To understand what the two layers are, one needs to understand Ethereum prior to when it went through the last upgrade, the Merge.
Ethereum’s old proof-of-work blockchain was also known as the execution (application) layer. When Ethereum started its proof-of-stake (PoS) chain, also known as the consensus layer, developers were originally going to transition over to just the PoS chain. But that seemed to be too complicated of a task for developers, so they decided to merge the two chains together - hence the term the Merge.
Merging of PoW chain to PoS chain (ethereum.org)
Now, the two layers have different functions that help move the Ethereum blockchain forward. The execution layer is where all smart contracts and protocol rules live on, while the consensus layer is in charge of making sure that all validators on the network are following those rules.
The Ethereum Foundation did not come out with a specific blog that has rebranded the upgrade to “Shapella,” but over time, the core developers have started to call it “Shapella.”
On Twitter, Ethereum developers shared that “Shapella” went live on Sepolia earlier this week, referring to the two components of the upgrade.
Shapella is live and finalized on Sepolia #SepoliaShapella
Next would be Goerli, then Mainnet?? pic.twitter.com/NGXTW9ibDe
— parithosh | ???????? (@parithosh_j) February 28, 2023
Read more: ‘Ethereum’ vs ‘Eth 2’: What’s in a Name?
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Margaux Nijkerk
Margaux Nijkerk reports on blockchain protocols with a focus on the Ethereum ecosystem. A graduate of Johns Hopkins and Emory universities, she has a masters in International Affairs & Economics. She holds a very small amount of ETH and other altcoins.
Margaux Nijkerk
Margaux Nijkerk reports on blockchain protocols with a focus on the Ethereum ecosystem. A graduate of Johns Hopkins and Emory universities, she has a masters in International Affairs & Economics. She holds a very small amount of ETH and other altcoins.
