There will be a software upgrade for the next network, and it will allow staked Ether to be withdrawn after it is implemented in Shanghai.
Ethereum developers announced that they are moving forward with a crucial software upgrade that would allow users to withdraw Ether tokens used to run the blockchain network during their first online meeting of the year.
The upgrade is anticipated to go live in March, the developers previously stated in December. A number of other features that many developers wanted to add to the Shanghai upgrade are being delayed in order to enable token withdrawals as soon as possible.
On the call, which was broadcast on YouTube, Tim Beiko, who oversees Ethereum developers, said, “We should probably just be removing stuff at this point.
Shanghai would primarily enable the ability for users whose tokens are used to order network transactions to withdraw their coins. According to data tracker Beaconcha.in, approximately 15.83 million Ether, worth close to $20 billion at the time of writing, are currently being held in specialized wallets known as “staking wallets” and their owners are unable to withdraw the coins. Owners of tokens are compensated with fees for direct transactions.
Shanghai comes after the Merge upgrade, which enabled the network to use staked coins rather than power-hungry computers to order transactions in September. The modification, which was dubbed the most ambitious software upgrade in the history of blockchain technology, reduced Ethereum’s power consumption by about 99%.
While the price of Ether increased for several months prior to the Merge, it has since dropped by about 15% along with much of the rest of the cryptocurrency market as a result of the fallout from the FTX exchange’s bankruptcy in November. Numerous cryptocurrency lenders that had previously given holders of the currency higher returns than staking, like Celsius Network, also went out of business last year. Staking is now more appealing as one of the few remaining ways to earn yield in cryptocurrencies when coin prices aren’t rising as a result of their demise.
More individuals and institutional investors are anticipated to stake their coins in Shanghai in order to support the Ethereum network and generate yield.