Week in Ethereum News

Eth News and Links

All core devs

• All Core Devs – Execution (ACDE) #194:
  • Pectra (Prague + Electra) upgrade:
    • Pectra-devnet-3: launch in 2 weeks with EIP7702 (set EOA account code)
    • EOF: targeting Pectra-devnet-4 in ~4 weeks
    • EIP2537 BLS precompile: reprice gas costs based on benchmarks
    • PeerDAS: plan to rebase code from Dencun to Pectra but avoid testing other Pectra EIPs on PeerDAS devnets
  • EIP7732 ePBS: no execution layer changes required other than builder API, provides delayed execution validation, spec is stable & implementations have started
  • Post-merge cleanup proposals:
    • Remove totalDifficulty from Execution API
    • EIP7642 eth/69: drop pre-merge fields to reduce bandwidth

Pectra (Prague + Electra) upgrade, likely targeting Q1 2025

• PeerDAS:
  • PeerDAS breakout #7: discussed moving to slot auctions to address free data availability problem in block auctions

Osaka + F starname upgrade

• F-starname last call: suggestion to name consensus layer upgrade Fulu (current favorite) and combined upgrade Fosaka (Osaka + Fulu)

Centralization watch: threatening the value of your ETH

• 🚨 Lido at 28.7%, still too close to 33.3% threshold
• Client diversity (via clientdiversity.org):
  • Execution layer: Geth ~55% majority 
  • Consensus layer: Prysm 36%
  • Any client bug over 33.3% could mean loss of finality
• Better geographic diversity is optimal, particularly outside of North America & Europe

Layer 1

• Toni Wahrstätter: evolution of timing games, Kiln causes biggest problems
• Lighthouse tree-states explainer, reduce RAM while keeping more beacon states in memory
• Dora (explorer): add views of execution & consensus layer clients peer mesh

Research

• Censorship insurance markets for BRAID: proposal to improve user experience issue of liquidity requirements

Client Releases

• Execution layer:
  • EthereumJS v0.10.2: RPC improvements
  • Erigon v2.60.6: improvements to stateDiff encoding, callTracer & diagnostics
  • Geth v1.14.8: bug fixes
  • Nethermind v1.28.0: adds eth_simulate, enhances OP Stack support & tune Pruning.CacheMb
  • Reth v1.0.5: OP Granite upgrade support

Layer 2

• Optimism activated permissioned fallback until vulnerabilities from fault proof audits are fixed by Granite upgrade

EIPs/Standards

• EIPs (Ethereum improvement proposals):
  • EIP7756: EOF/EVM trace specification (adds EOF support to EIP3155 tracing)
• RIPs (Rollup improvement proposals):
  • RIP7755: Cross-L2-calls

Stuff for developers

• Brock: intervals of memory/heap allocated values in Solidity
• Bulloak toolchain (GitHub Action): check Solidity tests conform to Branching Tree Technique spec
• Halmos v0.1.14 (symbolic testing): adds toml config, Docker image & forge-std assert cheatcode support
• MACI v2: adds concurrent polls and custom gatekeepers: Hats Protocol, Gitcoin Passport, Zupass & Semaphore
  • Contribute to MACI v2 trusted setup ceremony

Ecosystem

• Eth Magicians call for contributions: new ideas, logo & moderators wanted
• EF data collection grant recipients share $560k

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Job Listings

• Sablier are hiring a Business Development Lead and Frontend Engineer

Job listings: $600 for 4 issues (75 char limit).  Pay using 3cities.  Questions? abcoathup at-gmail

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Onchain stats

• Fees (via ultrasound.money):
  • Gas: 0.6 to 23.5 gwei, 2.5 gwei average; zero net issuance at 23.9 gwei 
  • 16k ETH net issuance this week
• ETHUSD: $2,534 – $2,752, currently $2,593, all time high $4,878
• ETHBTC: currently 0.044 (Flippening at ~0.164)

Notable at app layer

• Maker voted to offboard WBTC after BitGo announced plans for BiT Global (Justin Sun) to hold 2 of 3 multisig keys, due to the backlash BitGo Singapore will now hold 3rd key
  • Coinbase hinted at a future cbBTC
• Accept USDC: campaign for small retailers to accept USDC payments 

Regulation/business/tokens

• Thai SEC digital asset regulatory sandbox open for applications
• CoinDesk: Eigen Labs sent employee addresses to EigenLayer projects for token airdrops

General

• Alex Pertsev fundraiser for appeal to 5 year sentence
• ZachXBT: DPRK IT workers uncovered at 25+ projects
• NIST post quantum encryption algorithms: ML-KEM, ML-DSA & SLH-DSA

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END OF SERVICE: plan to deprecate Week in Ethereum News

Editor: @abcoathup
Follow @WeekinEthNews for the most clicked links
Permalink: https://weekinethereumnews.com/week-in-ethereum-news-august-17-2024

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Upcoming Dates of Note

(new/changes in bold)

• Aug 23-Sep 13 – ETHGlobal ETHOnline virtual hackathon
• Aug 23-26 – ETHTokyo hackathon & conference
• Aug 29-31 – ETHAccra hackathon
• Aug 31 – Underhanded Solidity contest deadline
• Sep 5-8 – ETHWarsaw conference & hackathon
• Sep 9-15 – ETHSafari (Kenya)
• Sep 12-14 – NapulETH (Napoli)
• Sep 13-14 – Ethereum México
• Sep 20-22 – ETHCapeTown hackathon
• Sep 20-22 – ETHGlobal Singapore hackathon
• Sep 26-27 – ETHMilan conference
• Oct 4-6 – Ethereum Kuala Lumpur conference & hackathon
• Oct 4-6 – ETHRome hackathon
• Oct 17-19 – ETHSofia conference & hackathon
• Oct 17-20 – ETHLisbon hackathon
• Oct 18-20 – ETHGlobal San Francisco hackathon
• Nov 12-15 – Devcon 7 – Southeast Asia (Bangkok)
• Nov 15-17 – ETHGlobal Bangkok hackathon
• Dec 6-8 – ETHIndia hackathon

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