Sepolia Post-Merge Upgrade Announcement

• The Sepolia testnet volition acquisition a post-merge execution furniture (EL) upgrade astatine artifact 1735371, expected connected August 17, 2022
• The upgrade volition origin EL clients connected the web to disconnect from peers which person not transitioned to proof-of-stake. It does not adhd further functionality beyond this.
• Sepolia node operators indispensable upgrade their execution furniture lawsuit anterior to artifact 1735371.
• A akin upgrade is expected connected Goerli and the Ethereum mainnet erstwhile these networks person transitioned to proof-of-stake

Background

In bid to support a steadfast adjacent list, nodes connected Ethereum's execution furniture volition automatically disconnect peers who bash not person the aforesaid upgrade series arsenic them. On the Ethereum mainnet, this means checking whether a adjacent upgrded to Frontier Thawing astatine artifact 200,000, past Homestead astatine artifact 1,150,000, and truthful connected each the mode to the latest upgrade, Gray Glacier, which happened astatine artifact 15,050,000. EIP-2124 specifies however this is handled. In emblematic web upgrades, which are triggered by a artifact height, this happens automatically arsenic nodes usage the artifact tallness of upcomming upgrades to filter peers.

For The Merge, this was not imaginable due to the fact that the upgrade was triggered utilizing a total difficulty worth alternatively than a artifact number. The rationale for this prime is explained successful EIP-3675:

Using a pre-defined artifact fig for the hardfork is unsafe successful this discourse owed to the PoS fork prime taking precedence during the transition.

An attacker whitethorn usage a number of hash powerfulness to physique a malicious concatenation fork that would fulfill the artifact tallness requirement. Then the archetypal PoS artifact whitethorn beryllium maliciously projected connected apical of the PoW artifact from this adversarial fork, becoming the caput and subverting the information of the transition.

To support the web from this onslaught scenario, trouble accumulated by the concatenation (total difficulty) is utilized to trigger the upgrade.

To minimize changes to the protocol during its astir analyzable upgrade since launch, the plan for The Merge excluded EIP-2124 compatibility. This means an further upgrade indispensable present beryllium done to adhd this. It is important to enactment that the lone alteration introduced arsenic portion of this upgrade is specifying a artifact fig that nodes tin usage to place peers who person gone done The Merge. No different functionality is introduced oregon deprecated arsenic portion of this upgrade.

Upgrade Information

Timing

This upgrade volition hap connected Sepolia astatine artifact 1735371, expected connected August 17, 2022.

Note that a akin upgrade volition beryllium announced for Goerli and mainnet aft these networks person transitioned to proof-of-stake.

Ropsten volition not beryllium upgraded since it is present considered deprecated, on with Rinkeby and Kiln. See this post for much details connected their deprecation schedule.

Client Releases

Only execution furniture clients request to beryllium updated for this upgrade. Node operators tin support moving their existent statement furniture lawsuit merchandise connected Sepolia done the transition.

Note that lawsuit releases utilized for the Goerli/Prater merge each enactment this upgrade connected Sepolia. In different words, if you already downloaded a merchandise for the Goerli/Prater merge, you tin usage that aforesaid mentation connected Sepolia for this upgrade.

Execution Layer

Upgrade Specifications

The specification for this alteration is tracked arsenic portion of the Paris specifications, nether the FORK NEXT Upgrade section.

FAQ

As a node operator, what should I do?

You should upgrade your execution furniture lawsuit to 1 of the versions listed supra earlier August 16, 2022. Your statement furniture lawsuit does not request to beryllium upgraded.

As a staker, what bash I request to do?

The validator acceptable connected Sepolia is permissioned. If you are portion of the existent Sepolia validators, you indispensable update your execution furniture lawsuit to 1 of the versions listed supra connected August 16, 2022 astatine the latest.

If you are not portion of the existent Sepolia validator set, you bash not request to bash thing astatine this time.

Goerli/Prater and mainnet validators volition request to travel the aforesaid steps erstwhile this upgrade is announced connected those networks.

As an exertion oregon tooling developer, what should I do?

Nothing, unless you are besides moving a node. If so, delight upgrade your execution furniture lawsuit to 1 of the versions listed supra earlier August 16, 2022.

As an Ethereum idiosyncratic oregon Ether holder, is determination thing I request to do?

No. The Ethereum mainnet is not affected by this upgrade. Even erstwhile this upgrade volition beryllium applied to mainnet, determination won't beryllium immoderate enactment needed.

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Thank you to Justin Chrn for the archetypal screen representation and Tomo Saito for the modifications.