Eth News and Links
Mainnet execution layer
- Execution Layer PoW switch off named Paris, site of first major community organized conference
- Nethermind’s full pruning, run a pruned node with ~100Gb of storage
- Verkle tree single client testnet demo video
Proof of Stake consensus layer
- PoS implementers call video [first 15 mins]. Notes from Ben Edgington
- Latest What’s New in Eth2
- Kelvin open sources unedited Eth2 Book
- Nimbus v22.3.0: run as a Windows service, config file for command line options and lower CPU, bandwidth & memory usage
- Lodestar v0.34.1: make block proposing flow resilient to errors
- Lighthouse task list before PoW can be switched off
- Prysm quality approach: static analysis checks, unit & fuzz tests, common spec tests and code review; recommends trying a minority client for Kiln
- Wagyu Key Gen v1.2.0: supports generating keys for Kiln & Kintsugi testnets
- Paper on PoS fork choice attacks results in spec patch for an edge case in an equivocation balancing attack; protocol not vulnerable to avalanche attack
PoW switch off
- Kiln testnet launched, transitions to PoS next week.
- Help test PoW switch off, the biggest change in Ethereum’s history
- Get Kiln Ether, deploy contracts and send transactions
- The amount of testing impacts when PoW switch off is ready
- Guide to run Geth+Teku, Geth+Lighthouse, Geth/Nethermind+Lodestar or Geth+Prysm
- Kiln v2.1 spec: optimistically import any post-merge block, add QoS for transition config endpoint and clarifications of Engine API spec
- Validator withdrawals meta-spec proposal using a push architecture
- merge-devnet-5 transitioned & switched off PoW, no issues found testing with zombie miners
EIPs/Standards
- EIP4881: Deposit Contract Snapshot Interface
- EIP4885: Subscription Token Standard for NFTs and Multi Tokens
- EIP4886: Proxy Ownership Register
- EIP4895: Beacon chain push withdrawals as operations
Layer2
- Arbitrum gas pricing change adds momentum and targets 80% full so gas price changes faster but more gently
- DefersiFi adds bridge to Arbitrum
- Argent zkSync mobile wallet out of beta
- Argent X (StarkNet) v3: migrate assets such as briqs from v2
- StarkNet’s proposed account abstraction design
- Optimism’s proposed Cannon fault proof; Norswap’s Cannon explainer
- Optimism multi-client plan to decentralize & remove upgrade keys
- Vitalik’s explainer of the tradeoffs between EIP 4488 (simple calldata gas reduction) and EIP4844 (new data blob transaction type) to drastically lower transaction costs for rollups
This newsletter is made possible thanks to Starbloom Ventures!
Starbloom Ventures is an early-stage venture fund founded by Evan Van Ness to invest in the future of web3.
Our first publicly announced investment is Karma, which is building an on-chain reputation system for web3 participants. Check out the reputation leaderboards for ENS and Gitcoin delegates.
Stuff for developers
- Hardhat for VS Code extension: Solidity code completion, code navigation, formatting and quick fix suggestions; public beta
- ethers.js update & v5.6.0: adds CCIP Read for ENS resolvers, ENS wildcard and Cloudflare Worker support
- WalletConnect v1.7.4: fix event listener registration
- Multicall3: aggregate results of multiple constant function calls
- PRBProxy v2.0.0 (multiple calls in one transaction): improved gas efficiency
- Chainalysis oracle for sanctions screening in Solidity and JavaScript
- Solwaifu: bytecode ERC20 for minimal gas use, unaudited
- Ethsig-rs: Cloudflare worker enables Sign In With Ethereum for services
- Run a local version of StarkNet Voyager block explorer
- web3-starknet-react: inspired by web3-react
- Damn Vulnerable DeFi (CTF) Foundry version
- evm-puzzles: interactive version, improved bytecode display and evm.codes playground links
- EVM golf challenges by the Ethernaut
- NFT randomness: algorithms & techniques for less predictable minting
- Contract memory explainer
- DevPill.me: blockchain development guide
Security
- Bacon Protocol $1 million reentrancy exploit, bug was found in patch
- The Idols Marketplace vulnerability, rescued ~58 ETH & NFTs that were at risk, reported by samczsun
- EF vulnerability disclosures for execution & consensus layer clients
- Optimism self destruct inflation postmortem
Ecosystem
- 10 million ETH in staking deposit contract
- Wen Merge? Superphiz predicts June
- Etherscan labels Gnosis Safe contracts created by proxy factory
Enterprise
- Stripe adds crypto support: on/off ramps, KYC & identity verification, fraud prevention and carbon offsetting
Application layer
- Yuga Labs (BAYC) acquires CryptoPunks & Meebits, plans to give NFT holders commercial rights
- Gem (NFT marketplace aggregator) integrates LooksRare
- Quixotic (Optimism) & Stratos (Arbitrum) NFT Launchpad, no-code NFTs for free to mint projects
- Andre Cronje terminating front ends April 3; Yearn unaffected
- DefiSaver’s automated MakerDAO vault payback to avoid liquidation for mStable, Rari and Yearn yield farming strategies
Job Listings
- Status is hiring! Communications Director & Creative Strategist. All jobs
- Devcon needs a front-end web developer
- EF’s Privacy & Scaling Explorations team seek a ZKP Security Engineer, L2 Security Engineer and a Marketing Ops Manager
- eVerse is hiring a lead blockchain engineer for its social video platform
- Mark Cuban seeks a web3 front-end developer. Send a work sample to apply.
- Nomic Foundation hiring Rust Tech Lead & Ethereum Tech Lead
Reach developers experienced with Ethereum. $600 for four issues (~75 character limit), payable in ETH/DAI/USDC to abcoathup.eth on mainnet, Arbitrum or Optimism. Questions? abcoathup at-gmail
Regulation/business/tokens
- US President Biden’s crypto executive order: asks Treasury to make policy recommendations, mitigate systemic & illicit use risks, promote US leadership, equitable & safe access and explore CBDC
- US FINCEN: large scale sanctions evasion using crypto not practicable
- UK FCA orders shutdown of crypto ATMs as none are registered
- Ormeus Coin promoters charged with fraudulent securities offerings
- EmpowerCoin, ECoinPlus & Jet-Coin owners/operators charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering
- Analysis of DEX aggregators
General
- Twitter available via Tor
- The Verge: The many escapes of Justin Sun
- Vitalik: barycentric evaluation tutorial
Follow @WeekinEthNews to find out what the most clicked links are. Follow @evan_van_ness and @abcoathup to get most of the week’s news in real time.
Permalink for this week’s issue: https://weekinethereumnews.com/week-in-ethereum-news-march-12-2022
Dates of Note
Upcoming dates of note (new/changes in bold):
- Mar 11-20 – Ethereum Rio
- Mar 15 – deadline for ETH University student project grants
- Mar 15 – Cryptocurrency Class starts (virtual)
- Mar 16 – submission deadline for Underhanded Solidity Contest
- Mar 17-18 – ETH Austin summit
- Mar 24 – Gitcoin Grants Round 13 ends (support Week in Eth News)
- Mar 29-31 – ETHDubai
- Apr 7-9 – ETH Portland hackathon
- Apr 18-25 – Devconnect (Amsterdam)
- Apr 22 – deadline for EF academic grants round
- Apr 22-24 – ETHAmsterdam
- May 20 – US Fed CBDC discussion paper feedback deadline
- Jun 10-12 – ETHPrague
- Jun 20-23 – NFT.NYC
- Jun 24-26 – ETHNewYork
- Jul 8 – ETH Seattle summit
- Jul 19-21 – EthCC 5 (Paris)
- Aug 19-21 – ETHMexicoCity
- Aug 27-28 – DeFi Security Summit (Stanford)
- Aug 29-31 – Science of Blockchain Conference (Stanford)
- Sep 12-14 – DappCon (Berlin)
- Oct 11-14 – Devcon 6 (Bogotá)
- Nov 4-6 – ETHSanFrancisco
- Dec 2-4 – ETHTaipei
Did you get forwarded this newsletter? Sign up to receive it weekly