The Ethereum information network successfully finished its transition from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS) on September 15. This change is expected to increase sustainability and reduce energy consumption by 99.95%.

However, in contrast to what many people believed would happen, the merger had no impact whatsoever on the price of Ethereum; in fact, the price dropped significantly after the merger.

At this time, the network is getting ready for the next upgrade, which is going to be called Shanghai. With this upgrade, the withdrawals of a validator that take place from the Beacon Chain to EVM, also known as Ethereum Virtual Machine, will be supported. It is anticipated that this will take place as a result of a newly implemented system-level operation. EVM is software that, after each addition of a block to the chain, evaluates the state of the Ethereum network and carries out the execution of smart contracts.

On December 1, 2020, the Beacon chain was released to support Ethereum (ETH) staking. This event occurred exactly one year from now. In addition, the chain was activated so that a merger could take place, which would result in the proof-of-work verification method being replaced by the proof-of-stake verification method.

Withdrawals Will Be Supported By The Ethereum Beacon Chain

Up until this point, the Beacon chain had only supported the act of staking ETH; however, after the upgrade, the chain will also be able to support the act of withdrawing ETH. Beacon Chain Push Withdrawals as Operations, which is what EIP-4895 is officially called, will make it possible to conduct this withdrawal.

In addition, the Shanghai Upgrade includes a number of significant Ethereum Improvement Protocols (EIP), such as EIP-3540, EIP-3074, EIP-3670, and the most significant of all, EIP-4895. In the context of the block, the withdrawal token that the validator will be given is referred to as operations or a new object.

It is interesting to note that users are able to withdraw the ETH coins that they have staked without incurring any gas fees; however, there are limits on the number of tokens that users are able to withdraw. Now that the merger has been finished, the network's attention will now turn to the Surge, Verge, Purge, and Splurge cycles.

The price of Ethereum has decreased by 1.16% in the past twenty-four hours, bringing it down to $1,343 at the moment.