What comes next after the merge? Shanghai Upgrade or proto-danksharding

Finally, the merge is up and running without any technical glitch, no replay attack has been reported so far during/after this memorable transition process from Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake
(PoS) protocol, thanks to all those who see to make this a success.

Merge is the first phase of the ethereum upgrade it aimed to make the ethereum blockchain energy efficient by eliminating miners' usage of high energy, a report from decrypt shows merge has decarbonized ethereum blockchain carbon footprint by 99.99% recording a tremendous milestone achieved by the second largest crypto asset cutting down excessive use of energy.

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What's next

A known fact is merge will not solve the impending high gas fee problem on the ethereum blockchain, for now, it's up to ethereum core developers to decide on what upgrade will be included in the next phase, the Shanghai upgrade has been the next cheap talk where validators will be able to make withdrawal of their staked token, between having access to one's assets or improving scalability which will come first will all depend on consensus decision made by users on the blockchain

Shanghai

Over $20 billion have been locked up for staking by thousands/millions of validators, which also means with the merge up running henceforth validators who stake their token will be in charge of verifying transactions on the ethereum network and will be rewarded handful based on their staking capacity.

currently, there are no features on the ethereum blockchain that allows validators to withdraw their staked ethereum token, which is a pressing issue that needs to be looked into by the team, an upgrade feature that will be likely integrated into the Shanghai upgrade is access to withdraw staked ethereum by validators

The second feature that will likely go into the Shanghai upgrade is the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) a feature that governs how smart contrast interacts on the block.

Proto-danksharding

proto-danksharding is a process by which large amounts of data on rollups are verified by only sampling small pieces of data.
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Scalability in a blockchain is as important as any prior upgrade it won't be feasible for users to have access to their funds and at the same time be getting stuck while making their withdrawals or paying high fees, with the proto-danksharding upgrade a rollups technology feature that solves scalability problem, a tool where ethereum gas fee problem will be addressed such as reducing block time and speed up transactions process.

Consensus needs to be agreed upon on what feature will be implemented on either of the upgrades, it's likely these upgrades might take years of testing and retesting before they will be finally up and running, the more complex an upgrade is the longer it takes to complete, for now, investors will have to deal with high gas fee and their inaccessible staked ethereum stuck before the decision of new upgrades is added to the blockchain network.

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