Ethereum Berlin Upgrade Announcement

Source | Ethereum Blog

Author: Tim Beiko

➤Berlin upgrade is ready to deploy!

➤ We are moving very fast: the first testnet to be upgraded is Ropsten, scheduled for March 10th. The mainnet upgrade is scheduled for April 14th.

➤ If you are running an Ethereum node, you should upgrade to a Berlin-compatible version for testnet as soon as possible, and to a mainnet version before April 7th.

➤ See below for details on Berlin-compatible client versions and the EIPs that are incorporated into this upgrade.

After many months of planning, the Berlin upgrade is finally here! Following the Istanbul and Muir Glacier upgrades, the Berlin upgrade is scheduled to be deployed on the Ethereum mainnet at block height 12,244,000. We expect it to go live around Wednesday, April 14, 2021, but since block times are variable, the exact date may change.

Before being deployed to the mainnet, this upgrade will first run on the Ropsten, Goerli and Rinkeby testnets. The entire launch schedule is as follows:

Ethereum node operators need to upgrade their nodes before the fork block of the network they want to participate in. Given the variability of block times, it is recommended to upgrade a few days before the expected date. See below for the upgrade version corresponding to each client.

To be compatible with the Berlin upgrade, node operators need to upgrade the client versions they run. The following table lists the versions of various clients in the Ethereum network that support the Berlin upgrade, including testnet and mainnet.

Note that TurboGeth and EthereumJS will not release versions for the first testnet, but they will release versions before the mainnet release. We will update this article when their versions are released. Trinity is opposed and will not support the Berlin upgrade.

The Berlin upgrade will introduce the following EIPs to the Ethereum network:

➤ EIP-2565: ModExp Gas Cost ModExp Gas Cost

• Reduce ModExp (0x00..05) precompilation cost

➤ EIP-2929: Increase gas consumption for state access opcodes

• Increase the gas cost of SLOAD , CALL , BALANCE , EXT* , and SELFEDESTRUCT opcodes when they are used for the first time in a transaction

➤ EIP-2718: Transaction Envelopes with Types

• Introducing a new transaction type, which is a wrapper that provides support for multiple transaction types.

➤ EIP-2930: Optional access lists

• Add a transaction type that contains an access list of addresses and storage keys that the transaction intends to access. This will reduce the gas consumption increase caused by EIP-2929.

To learn more about these EIPs, see Ethereum Cat Herder’s Berlin overview post.

FAQ

Q: Why "Berlin"?

A: After the Istanbul upgrade, we ran out of names for network upgrades. Someone suggested we name them after the cities where Devcon was held, so we did. Berlin was the city where Devcon 0 was held, and the next upgrade will be named after the city where Devcon 1 was held - London.

Q: As an Ethereum user or ETH holder, is there anything I can do?

A: If you use an exchange (such as Coinbase , Kraken , or Binance), a web wallet service (such as Metamask, MyCrypto, or MyEtherWallet), a mobile wallet service (such as Coinbase Wallet, Status.im, or Trust Wallet), or a hardware wallet (such as Ledger, Trezor, or KeepKey), you do not need to do anything unless your exchange or wallet service instructs you to take additional steps.

Q: What do I need to do as a node operator or miner?

A: Download the latest version of the Ethereum client listed above.

Q: What happens if I am a miner or node operator and do not participate in the upgrade?

A: If you are using an Ethereum client but do not upgrade to the latest version (listed above), after the upgrade, your client will synchronize the blockchain data before the fork. You will be stuck on an incompatible chain that follows the old rules and will not be able to send ETH or operate on the upgraded Ethereum network.

Q: What does network upgrade mean on Ethereum?

A: Network upgrade means a change to the underlying Ethereum protocol, creating new rules to improve the system. The decentralized nature of the blockchain system makes network upgrades more difficult. The smooth progress of blockchain network upgrades requires collaboration and communication with the community and various Ethereum client developers .

Q: What happens during the network upgrade process?

A: When the community reaches consensus on which changes need to be included in the upgrade, these changes to the protocol will be written into various Ethereum clients, such as geth, Open Ethereum, Besu and Nethermind. The protocol change will be activated at a specific block height. Any node that has not upgraded to the new rules will be abandoned on the old chain, and the old chain will continue to retain the previous rules.

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to the Ethereum community and all clients and platform developers for their contributions to the Berlin Hard Fork. ?

Next up, it’s the London Hard Fork!

This is an emerging and evolving high-tech field. If you choose to implement the advice in this article and continue to participate, please ensure that you fully understand the impact of your choice. Readers should understand the risks involved, including but not limited to the risk of unexpected bugs, and readers should assume the risk alone. This article and its advice are not a sale of any kind and do not provide any kind of guarantee, including but not limited to anything related to the Ethereum network or the Ethereum clients mentioned herein.

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Original link: https://blog.ethereum.org/2021/03/08/ethereum-berlin-upgrade-announcement/

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