The upgrade fundamentally altered how ETH is minted and how transactions are verified on the Ethereum network, facilitating its transformation to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. Since ETH staking's debut in 2020, over $34.56 billion worth of ETH has been deposited into the network.
However, those funds, as well as the rewards generated from them, remained inaccessible to users even after the merge. Now, with the implementation of Shanghai, those funds have become available for withdrawal, finally concluding Ethereum's transformation into a proof-of-stake network.
The journey to Shanghai has been an arduous one, with Ethereum's core developers making numerous concessions to expedite the upgrade's release. Shanghai was initially intended to encompass various other improvements to the Ethereum network. Still, those updates were excluded from the upgrade to ensure that ETH withdrawals were rolled out as quickly as possible.
The security and accessibility of tens of billions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency were at stake, so any flaws in the upgrade's execution could have resulted in massive issues for the network. However, immediate concerns are now in the rearview mirror, as stakers who directly deposited a minimum of 32 ETH can now withdraw the profits earned from their deposits, or they can withdraw the entire deposit.
Stakers who deposited their ETH via intermediary staking pools or centralized crypto exchanges will have to wait longer. Each intermediary ETH staking service will introduce withdrawals on its own timetable. Lido has stated that staked ETH withdrawal capabilities will be made available to customers in approximately a month, while Coinbase customers may have to wait several months before being able to withdraw their staked ETH.
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