Week in Ethereum News

Eth News and Links

Shapella (Shanghai + Capella) upgrade

• Sepolia testnet upgrades to Shapella February 28
• Consensus layer Sepolia releases:
  • Lighthouse v3.5.0
  • Lodestar v1.5.0-rc.0
  • Nimbus v23.2.0
  • Prysm v3.2.1
  • Teku v23.2.0
• Execution layer Sepolia releases:
  • Besu v23.1.1-RC1
  • Ethereum JS v0.7
  • Erigon v2.39.0
  • Geth v1.11.2
  • Nethermind v1.17.0
• EF blog post for Sepolia upgrade to Shapella
• consensus-specs v1.3.0-rc.3: adds test for validator deposit & BLS change in one block, frees EIP4844 blobs from blocks and adds KZG API
• Latest all core devs – consensus (ACDC) call video. Notes from Ben Edgington & Christine Kim:
  • circuit breaker (fallback to local building) tested using mock builder in Hive tests
  • MEV-Boost running successfully on Zhejiang testnet
  • SSE discussion so any client (rather than just Prysm fork) can trigger block building
• Flashbots: MEV-Boost stack changes for Capella

Dencun (Cancun + Deneb) upgrade

• KZG Ceremony:
  • 54,000+ contributors, 4000+ in the lobby, 16 days left in first general contribution period
• Latest EIP4844 implementers call video. Notes from Terence: client teams freeing blobs from blocks, devnet expected in a few weeks once decoupled

Layer 1

• Visualization of withdrawal credentials (0x00 vs 0x01) over time
• Beverly Hills (Verkle tree) testnet is now multi-client, Nethermind synced along with Geth
• Reth (execution client) modular p2p architecture can be used as standalone component

Research

• Recent Latest Message Driven GHOST: synchronous dynamically available & resilient to bounded asynchronous periods, proposed replacement for Gasper’s LMD-GHOST

For Stakers

• Superphiz: best practices to avoid getting slashed (only 226 validators have been slashed)
• Stake Local dashboard: multi-client Grafana dashboard
• Beaconcha.in explorer adds BLS change signature & broadcast of voluntary exits for Zhejiang testnet
• Obol running distributed validator on mainnet with 98.6% average effectiveness

Layer 2

• Arbitrum One tops Ethereum mainnet in transactions, first rollup to achieve more transactions in a day than mainnet
• Base: Coinbase layer 2 built on Optimism’s OP Stack, live on testnet, transaction fees paid in ETH with a portion of sequencer revenue going to funding public goods
• Optimism’s Superchain concept: network of OP Chains with shared bridge & communication layer
• Patrick McCorry: rollup transaction finality: sequencer’s promise, order finality and execution settlement 

EIPs/Standards

• New EIP core & ERC editors
• ERCs:
  • ERC6538: Stealth meta-address registry
  • ERC6551: NFT bound accounts

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Stuff for developers

• Solidity v0.8.19: adds operators for user-defined value types and fix for deployment bloat (code only used in creation code was included in runtime bytecode) 
• Solidity proposals for improving try/catch, feedback wanted
• Foundry:
  • configure SMTChecker
  • Testnet.fyi: short lived serverless testnet as a service using Anvil & AWS, proof of concept
• Statistical approximation in Solidity
• AztecConnectAuction: cross-chain sealed-bid auction using Aztec Connect
• Solidity external library cost Blur airdrop claimers $34k, internal would have saved ~2600 gas each
• Huffmate v1.1 (contract library in Huff): SendEthers utility, ECDSA & BytesLib implementation
• EVM disassembly guide: navigating metadata & why bytecode 6142 breaks most disassemblers
• sol2uml v2.5.0: storage variables are parsed in contract storage diagrams
• ContractReader.io adds live inline values
• Seaport v1.4: fix for v1.3 so zone & contract offerer checks applied after transfers
• Alchemy Create Web3 Dapp: NextJs based starter kit with components & templates
• Emojimon: guide to create Pokémon-inspired on-chain game using MUD stack
• EKO2022 CTF Phoenixtto solution
• Ethernaut CTF solutions in Huff (added to solutions in Vyper)
• Gitcoin Passport Scorer API: gate apps based on passport score
• SuperNova implementation in Rust, experimental

Security

• Oasis multisig upgraded a contract to recover funds from Wormhole exploiter based on UK court order

Ecosystem

• Danny Ryan’s reflections on the state of Ethereum: technological concerns, execution layer client diversity, core dev incentives, capture, ossification and L2 alignment
• Tim Beiko: testnet past, present & future:
  • Goerli: test validator setups, EthStaker offer low Goerli ETH deposits, deprecated
  • Holešovice: planned for later this year as replacement for Goerli
  • Sepolia: test apps, no supply issues as Sepolia ETH supply can be inflated
  • Ephemery: test validator setups on ephemeral testnet
• EF Q4 grantees share $4.4million in funding
• MetaMask disabling eth_sign RPC signature method by default

Enterprise

• Spotify pilots NFT gated playlists on Android in selected countries

Application layer

• Synthetix v3 deployed on mainnet & Optimism
• Aave voted to freeze BUSD reserve on v2
• ENS ETHDenver custom sticker pack pre-register and set your avatar
• NFT marketplace wars:
  • Blur NFT trading volume: 20% from 15 wallets, 50% from ~300 wallets
  • 125k ETH NFT wash trade (0% marketplace fee) via flash loan
  • Uniswap: use any ERC20 token to buy NFTs
  • Dankrad Feist’s explainer for creators: NFT contracts can’t enforce royalties
• Ethereum Postal Service: send physical letters via a contract call (but don’t dox anyone)
• Backed bCOIN tokenized tracker of Coinbase COIN, non-US qualified investors only 

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Job Listings

• Frax Finance is expanding their official core developer team. Apply here!
• Immutable is hiring a Protocol Blockchain Engineer.
• Cyfrin.io is hiring senior security engineers $190k-$300k.
• Request Network is hiring a Community & Communication Manager
• Shell Protocol team is hiring senior Solidity devs & more, remote or Hawaii
• Certora is hiring a Senior Enterprise Sales Rep.

Job listings: $600 for four issues (75 character limit), payable in ETH/DAI/USDC to abcoathup.eth on mainnet or Layer 2.  Questions? abcoathup at-gmail

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Regulation/business/tokens

• US regulators guidance for banks on liquidity risks from crypto entities
• FTX Japan reopens withdrawals
• Forsage founders charged with fraud in Ponzi scheme
• Jon Charbonneau: how value flows through Ethereum and why issuance is misunderstood

General/crypto

• Coinbase: lessons to learn from social engineering attack
• Trail of Bits: VSCode extensions & VSCode vulnerabilities disclosed
• Static analysis detectors for common vulnerabilities in Circom programs
• wienr: CLI reader for Week in Ethereum News

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Follow @WeekinEthNews to find out what the most clicked links are. Follow @abcoathup and @evan_van_ness to get most of the week’s news in real time.

Permalink for this week’s issue: https://weekinethereumnews.com/week-in-ethereum-news-february-25-2023

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Upcoming Dates of Note

(new/changes in bold)

• Feb 27 – deadline for EF academic grants round
• Feb 28 – Sepolia testnet upgrades to Shapella
• Mar 2-5 – ETHDenver Hackathon
• Mar 10-29 – Scaling Ethereum (ETHGlobal) virtual
• Mar 11  –  Ethereum Guatemala
• Mar 15-16 – ETHDubai
• Mar 16-18 – ETH Porto
• Mar 28-30 – Ethereum Rio
• Apr 12-14 – NFT NYC
• Apr 14-16 – ETHGlobal Tokyo
• Apr 14-16 – EthereumZuri.ch conference & hackathon
• Apr 21-25 – EthTaipei hackathon & conference
• Apr 27-30 – Istanbul ETH Privacy conference & hackathon
• May 5-7 – ETHMalaysia conference & hackathon
• May 5-7 – ETHTallinn hackathon
• May 9-10 – NFT Tallinn conference
• May 19-23 – EDCON Montenegro (changed from Vienna)
• May 20-21 – ETHDam (Amsterdam) conference & hackathon
• May 24-26 – Spaghett ETH (Naples) conference
• May 26–28 – ETHGlobal Istanbul
• Jun 2-4 – ETH Seoul
• Jun 9-11 – ETHPrague conference & hackathon
• Jun 23–25 – ETHGlobal Toronto
• Jul 5-7 – ETHBarcelona
• Jul 17-20 – EthCC (Paris)
• Jul 21–23 – ETHGlobal Paris
• Aug 16-19 – Ethereum Argentina (Buenos Aires)
• Sep 10-12 – Ethereum Singapore hackathon & conference
• Sep 22–24 – ETHGlobal New York
• Oct 6–25 – ETHOnline (ETHGlobal) virtual

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