Withdrawal Mainnet Shadow Fork 3 Finalized

Ethereum is gearing up for Shapella Network Upgrade. The upgrade, set to be implemented in 12th April 2023, will bring a major change to the Ethereum network with the activation of Beacon Chain Withdrawals. Ethereum's core developers have been continuously testing as the release date approaches. In this blog post, we'll look closely at the latest mainnet shadow fork.

What's New in MSF3 ?
Insights
MEV-Boost Bug

What's New in MSF3 ?

Developers prepared for the MSF-3 by implementing the latest recommended release of clients and lining up BLS changes. They also configured MEV-Boost at a reasonable level and had two builders present on the network.

In addition, they set up validator operations, depositing a few validators, and exiting a few without BLS changes applied. This thorough setup allowed the developers to test the Capella and Shanghai upgrades effectively.

Insights

The MSF experienced some syncing issues that led to fewer nodes than previous shadow forks. However, this did not significantly impact the testing process. Approximately 60,000 validators were evenly distributed across the available nodes, ensuring a a quality testing environment for assessing the upgrades.

Paritosh Jayanthi, a DevOps Engineer for the Ethereum Foundation, reported that the shadow fork was finalizing well. The testnet exhibited full withdrawals and some missing blocks, which Jayanthi attributed to late reorganizations. This observation indicated that the testnet was functioning as expected, and developers could proceed with confidence.

MEV-Boost Bug

During the testing process, developers discovered a few problematic MEV-Boost block signatures on the testnet. The root cause of this issue has not yet been identified.

Developers will most likely tear down MSF3 on April 10.