Ethereum launches testnet to test ETH withdrawal from the Beacon Chain

On February 1 at 15:00 UTC launched a Zhejiang testnet to simulate withdrawal of ETH from staking-contract on the Beacon Chain. The functionality is provided for in EIP-4895, planned for the next Shanghai hard fork of the Ethereum network.

On February 7, the Zhejiang hard fork will take place, which will activate EIP-4895. For now, users will only be able to deposit ETH.

Earlier, the developers launched a devnet to test the withdrawal function by validators from the deposit contract.

On January 24, the Ethereum team successfully implemented the shadow fork Shanghai to test the impact of the planned update on the mainnet.

The developers had identified March 2023 as the target window for the Shanghai hard fork on the mainnet.