Eth News and Links
Mainnet execution layer
- Kintsugi testnet returns to finality after issues found from fuzz testing changing expected blockhash and setting block number to 1
- Erigon v2022.01.01: bug fixes
- Nethermind v1.12.4: JSON RPC support improvements
- Besu v21.10.7: bug fixes
- Why and how clients will stop serving chain history older than a year
EIPs/Standards
Proof of Stake consensus layer
- Client diversity stats: we have a super-majority client; Institutions, pools & stakers are negligent if they run a super-majority client (more than 66% share), as a super-majority endangers both their stake and the network
- Latest What’s New in Eth2
- PoS implementers call. Notes from Ben Edgington:
- Spec to be updated for call semantics, keep Kintsugi until this happens
- One more testnet before upgrade public testnets to switch off PoW
- Nimbus v1.6.0: Key manager API support (beta), validator performance metrics, speed improvements, uses just 1 gig of RAM on mainnet
- Key manager UI with Lighthouse demo, uses Key manager API, work in progress
- Proposal for Whisk, privacy-preserving protocol for electing beacon chain block proposers, modified version of Single Secret Leader Election
- Vitalik’s Serenity design rationale updated (old but relevant)
Layer2
- Optimism transaction fees reduced, transactions ~30% cheaper on average
- Arbitrum Sequencer downtime due to hardware failure, backup had software upgrade in progress, Arbitrum still in beta, plans to decentralize Sequencer
- Binance enables Arbitrum withdrawals
- Polygon Zero (formerly Mir) Plonky2: recursive SNARK based on PLONK and FRI, recursive proofs generated in ~170ms on Macbook Pro
- Fuel proposes Layer 2 token model: tokenizing right to collect fees as a Layer 2 block producer; suggests models to avoid: PoS, fee paying & governance
- Celer inter-chain message framework live on testnet, single click UX to send arbitrary messages and execution instructions
- Adoption curves of Optimism and Arbitrum vs sidechains (linear & log scale)
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Stuff for developers
- Foundry: debugger: step through a transaction and view opcodes, stack, memory & source code highlighting
- Foundry parallel EVM tests: speed up unit and fuzz tests
- Getting started with Forge (Foundry testing framework)
- OpenZeppelin Contracts v4.5 release candidate open review
- Hardhat-marmite: Hardhat plugin to compare gas costs of Solidity snippets
- xdeployer v1.1.0: Hardhat plugin to deploy contracts with deterministic address (uses CREATE2), supports mainnet, Arbitrum, Optimism & testnets
- Seatbelt: test suite for Governor Bravo proposals, lists referenced addresses, confirms referenced contracts are verified and lists state changes
- PaymentSplitter: factory to create low cost splitters using EIP1167 minimal proxies, fixed cost <200k gas
- evm-codes: adds precompiled contracts reference
- evm-puzzles: new levels, set transaction data/value so won’t revert
- starknet-cairo-101: set of exercises to learn StarkNet
- Blocknative Transaction Preview API: simulate transactions to see effects before authorizing
- Matthew Green’s casual review of MetaMask crypto
- Ethereum Data Warehouse: queryable full history, based on Snowflake cloud, relation between events and emitting call, limited beta
Security
- Stobox STBU deployer private key compromised, reserve funds stolen
- OpenZeppelin Contracts security advisory for GovernorBravo compatibility layer, proposals executing function calls could have incorrect arguments due to bad ABI encoding
Ecosystem
- Galaxy Digital’s MEV report: $730+ million in MEV in 2021, most common strategy is arbitrage, Flashbots transactions are less than 1.5% of block space
- Cryptopunk sandwiched: 26.25 ETH bid placed, bot makes a higher bid, bot withdraws bid, bot adds new highest bid at 1 wei and wins
- Etherscan features in 2021 [in case you missed any]
- Bot drained 58 ETH from WETH <> WTF liquidity pool, beware of tokens with high slippage; reminder to be mindful of low effort airdrops
- Moxie (Signal founder): first impressions of web3; responses from Vitalik and Dan Finlay
- Analysis of Ethereum PoW emissions, bottom up estimate, 20 ktCO2/day, ~ 2-3 coal power plants; roll on switching off PoW forever
Application layer
- Opyn Squeeth live on mainnet, tracks index of ETH squared, options like exposure without need for strikes or expiries, no liquidations on long side
- EPNS (push notification service) live, subscribe to channels for notifications
- Olympus v2 Bonds: adds auto-staking and flexible vesting
- Live on Optimism
- Euler Finance guide to hedging in Uniswap
- ENS eth.link: DNS servers being switched to CloudFlare to avoid breaking ENS subdomain SSLs, older IPFS versions need upgrading
- LooksRare NFT marketplace, fees paid to token stakers, offer on any NFT in a collection, floor prices of traits, apparent wash trading for rewards
- MoonCats: traits, colors and SVGs now on-chain
- FancyLoogies: composable on-chain SVG NFT on Optimism
- Doomsday NFT: on-chain survival game, NFTs randomly destroyed
Job Listings
- Geth team seeks Senior Technical Writer to take ownership & redo docs
- The VAC team at Status.im are looking for a blockchain engineer
- Are you a p2p networking whiz? EF research hiring Networking Engineer
- Kwenta seeks Frontend Engineer, Solidity Engineer & Marketing Lead
- Certora seeks SR SW Eng, Security Res, Security Eng & Community Manager
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
- Ethereum Q4 financial results by Bankless, ETH annualized net issuance at 0.46%, $154 billion TVL in DeFi, $5.6 billion TVL in Layer 2
- USDC supply on Ethereum surpasses USDT
- Neufund shutting down due to lack of support from European regulators
- Pudgy Penguins community vs founders, potential acquisition, community wrapping NFTs to avoid royalties going to founders
- Coinbase acquiring FairX (US regulated derivatives exchange), plans to offer crypto derivatives in US
- Proposed bill to prohibit US Fed from issuing CBDC directly to individuals
- Class-action lawsuit filed against PoolTogether by ex-staff of US Senator Warren for allegedly allowing purchase of illegal lottery ticket
- Fees paid to use Ethereum in 2021 10x fees paid to use Bitcoin
General
- Don’t use antipattern of raw secrets on the web, data is vulnerable and normalizes users entering secrets
- The Onion’s guide to web3
- Wikipedia editors for most expensive artworks list discuss whether NFTs should be classified as art
- Decentralization matters: Dapper Labs’ NBA Top Shot froze user account FreeHongKong
- Marak, developer of colors.js and faker.js added infinite loop in apparent protest for corporations not giving back to the open source community
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-january-15-2022
Dates of Note
Upcoming dates of note (new/changes in bold):
- Feb 15 – Apr 5 – Cryptocurrency Class (virtual)
- Feb 17 – Schelling Point (Denver)
- Feb 18-20 – ETHDenver
- Mar 14-17 – Eth Rio
- Mar 17-18 – ETH Austin summit
- Mar 29-31 – ETHDubai
- Apr 7-9 – ETH Portland hackathon
- Apr 22-24 – ETHAmsterdam
- May 3-8 – spaghettETH (Milan)
- Jun 10-12 – ETHPrague
- Jun 16-19 – ETH Miami summit & hackathon
- 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)
- Nov 4-6 – ETHSanFrancisco
- Dec 2-4 – ETHTaipei
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