On Thursday, November 30, the Ethereum development team declared that Goerli, the blockchain’s multi-client testnet, will no longer receive support from both client and Ethereum Foundation testing teams.
Ethereum Duncun Upgrade
The Dencun upgrade is slated to be the ultimate one, serving as the final implementation that will eventually lead to validators exiting three months after Goerli Dencun activation or one month after Dencun mainnet activation.
The Ethereum Foundation is advising users dependent on Goerli for stable testnet environments to migrate in advance. Despite the permissionless nature of Goerli staking, the departure of validators from client and testing teams, representing a significant stake majority, poses potential stability challenges. Simultaneously, teams plan to use this transition to test delayed finality, inactivity leaks, and mass-slashings.
While Goerli is expected to be the first testnet to activate the Dencun upgrade, the Ethereum team will soon announce the specific date.
Goerli, embodying the collaborative spirit of the Ethereum community, was initiated and maintained by a diverse group of individuals overcoming technical challenges and inadvertently fostering a thriving community.
What actions should developers and stakers take?
The Ethereum Foundation advises developers to utilize Sepolia for testing decentralized applications, smart contracts, and other Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) functionalities. Sepolia’s permissioned validator set ensures a stable testing environment. Alternatively, various local development environments support testing against Ethereum mainnet state copies.
Stakers and infrastructure providers focusing on protocol-level testing can explore the recently launched Holesky testnet, where anyone can run a validator. For validator setup testing, the Ephemery testnet offers a weekly reset feature, enabling lightweight end-to-end testing of the validator lifecycle.
The Ethereum blockchain network has undergone several upgrades over the years, with the upcoming series of ETH upgrades primarily focusing on enhancing scalability.
Danksharding emerges as the next significant Ethereum upgrade, utilizing distributed data sampling to boost the scalability of the Ethereum network. This advancement is crucial for improving scalability while concurrently fostering decentralization by effectively managing extensive datasets generated by layer2 rollups.
The initial phase, known as Proto-danksharding or EIP-4844, will precede the complete implementation of danksharding. Additionally, Proto-danksharding introduces temporary data blobs, ensuring their seamless transmission. The comprehensive integration of danksharding is expected to be finalized by early 2024.
At the time of writing, the ETH price is trading 3% higher, approaching $2,100, as the SEC considers reviewing Fidelity’s spot Ethereum ETF.