Ethereum Stakers May Be Able To Withdraw Staked ETH In Few Months

Developers are leaning towards enabling withdrawals in March.

Ethereum stakers may be able to withdraw tokens locked in the ETH 2.0 staking contract as early as March, per a summary of a recent developers’ call authored and retweeted by Ethereum lead developer Tim Beiko.

Per the message shared, enabling withdrawals is a top priority for developers for the Shanghai upgrade. Consequently, developers believe it would be possible to roll out a Shanghai upgrade with withdrawals allowed by March.

“… but there is strong (unanimous?) consensus that withdrawals should happen ASAP, and if we add anything alongside them in the fork, the delays to Shanghai should be minimal,” Beiko wrote. “Teams felt like a March fork with withdrawals should be possible.”

.@TimBeiko quick recap of core devs call
Shared on Eth R&D Discord pic.twitter.com/vtJKarxJza

— abcoathup.eth ???? (@abcoathup) November 25, 2022

Notably, holders can expect more specifics on the Shanghai upgrade and staking withdrawals on December 8, when developers will host the last All Core Devs (ACD) call of the year. According to Beiko, developers plan to start the meeting with a status update on withdrawals.

It bears mentioning that a significant factor that could affect the timeline for withdrawals is EIP 4844, which will introduce Proto-danksharding, kick-starting the Ethereum sharding roadmap. It is an essential scaling solution for the network that will boost efficiency by splitting transactions. Notably, developers are considering shipping it with the Shanghai upgrade. However, Beiko notes that it may affect the withdrawal timeline.

The Ethereum Foundation assured users that the network would enable the withdrawal of staked ETH 6 to 12 months after The Merge. However, a message from a developer that made the rounds on Twitter shrouded this timeline with uncertainty as the developer asserted that there is no clear timeline and stakers may have to wait till 2024.

Notably, the message attracted criticism from Input Output Global chief Charles Hoskinson who asserted that Ethereum was becoming “The Hotel California” of crypto.

15.3 million ETH worth over $18 billion is currently locked in the Ethereum staking contract per data from ultrasound.money.

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