Time to buy ‘jpegs’? Community responds to upcoming Ethereum withdrawals

While many expressed serious sentiments, a Twitter user poked fun at the update, saying that it’s time to spend ETH on nonfungible tokens.

On March 28, Ethereum core developers confirmed that Shapella will take effect at 10:27 pm UTC on April 12. According to the announcement, Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 4895 will allow withdrawals after pushing the staked Ether from the Beacon Chain into the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), which is the execution layer. This will allow full and partial withdrawals with some mechanisms set in place to make sure that a flood of ETH will not disrupt the market.

Many community members were happy with the new update, taking to social media to express their sentiments over the news. One community member said that they had serious doubts in the last two years. According to the Twitter user, they were unsure whether they will be able to ever unstake. However, the community member believes that the new update solidifies the importance of believing in something that is constantly being improved.

Jesse Pollak also gave praise to the Ethereum developers for being able to push the update within one month of the original timeline. He tweeted:

The Shapella hard fork which is on its way to be activated on the Ethereum mainnet will finally allow Ethereum validators to withdraw their Ether (ETH) from the Beacon Chain. The much-awaited update sparked reactions from community members from celebrating the news to pointing out other concerns. 

can we take a moment to celebrate that withdrawals are shipping <7 months after the merge, within ~1 month of the original timeline estimate?

this would be a remarkable accomplishment for any project, let alone one that is as decentralized and security-focused as ethereum. https://t.co/u7bbk5P0up

— Jesse Pollak (jesse.xyz) (@jessepollak) March 28, 2023

Hal Press, the CEO of crypto hedge fund North Rock Digital, also put aside price commentaries to give respect to and praise the Ethereum developers for working to ship the upgrade. 

Related: Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin says no chance ETH is classed as security

While giving credit to the developers, another community member pointed out that the new update could also be the beginning of something ominous as some expect the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to take action against Ethereum after withdrawals are enabled.

As many responded with serious sentiments, a Twitter user added some fun to the mix, saying that it’s time to withdraw ETH and “blow it on jpegs,” suggesting to gamble all the ETH on nonfungible tokens.

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