Eth News and Links
Mainnet execution layer
- Tim Beiko’s All Core Devs update: update nodes for London, upgrade viewing parties, EIP3675 changes and PoW switch off road map
- JSON RPC changes for EIP1559: adds 0x02 transaction type and baseFeePerGas block header field
- Erigon 2021.07.05-alpha: Docker builds follow XDG spec
- Geth workshop videos
- SHA256 optimization for Merkle Roots: ~30% speed up of hashing
- Erigon on Raspberry Pi 4: full validation node on <$250 hardware
EIPs/Standards
Proof of stake consensus layer
- Lodestar validating on mainnet, beacon chain now has 5 mainnet clients
- Danny Ryan’s Finalized PoS update: mainnet validators must upgrade their execution clients
- Latest What’s New in Eth2
- PoS implementers call (video not uploaded). Notes from Ben Edgington
- Teku v21.7.0: optional upgrade, subcommand added to migrate to leveldb without a full resync and fixed file handle leak
- Lido staking pool roadmap to trustless staking
- Measuring staking decentralization: 31 parties would need to collude to control 51% of the beacon chain, 8 parties to collude to control 33%
- Proof of concept QT-based block/node explorer
- Attacking Gasper without adversarial network delay
Layer2
- Synthetix synth exchanges live on Optimism using Kwenta alpha
- Tenderly adds Optimism support
- Sorare migrated to Starkware for scaling
- StarkEx v3.0: Layer1 vaults for DeFi pooling & decentralized AMM, single STARK proof for multiple independent dApps
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Stuff for developers
- Ethers.js playground
- Remix IDE v0.15.0: Slither integration, URLs for opening files and Gists in Remix
- web3.js v1.5.0: EIP1559 support and documentation updates
- Nethereum (.Net library) v4.0.0: EIP1559 support
- Fe v0.7.0-alpha: runtime checks, custom revert errors, bytes type removed and multi line string support
- MyCrypto’s TypeScript strategy for EIP1559 fee estimation
- EthTx: transaction decoder website and open source Python library
- Smart-contract-inspector: state variable viewing library and demo website
- Using delegatecall safely
- Contract creation in bytecode explainer
- Engineering lessons from hunting Optimism L1->L2 deposit bug
- How to prepare to win an online hackathon
- Austin Griffith’s quick start for developers new to Ethereum
Security
- Securing Proof of Personhood services against puppeteer attack
- Tincho’s ChainSwap exploit Proof of Concept
- Sablier recipient cancellation vulnerability disclosed
- MyCrypto’s NFT bugs and exploits: CryptoPunks v1, Meebits trait minting and MoonCatRescue locked funds
Ecosystem
- Ethereum launched six years ago
- Flashbots bundles were recently included in ⅔ of blocks
- Blockscan by Etherscan: search for an address or transaction hash on mainnet, testnets, layer2 networks and sidechains
- CryptoFees.info adds protocol grouping to view all their fees
- Revoke.cash adds viewing and revoking of ERC721 allowances
Enterprise
- EY tested TaxGrid cross-border withholding tax solution, stakeholders included government departments of UK, Netherlands and Norway; uses ZK proofs, ERC20 and ERC721 tokens on a private permissioned network
Application layer
- Thales (Synthetix spin-off) live on mainnet: on-chain binary options
- Ondo Finance: fixed rate managed loans for risk-adjusted exposure to yield, ~$5m capped launch, exercise caution
- Time-Weighted AMM design for large orders, on-chain equivalent of TWAP order
- Fractional Art: fractional ownership for high value NFTs using ERC20 tokens
- Stoner Cats animated tv series sold ~3k ETH of NFTs with ~1.5k ETH in gas fees; $800k lost on out of gas errors (Disclosure: given a cat for contract feedback)
- EthBlockArt minting price discovery mechanism
- MATT auctions to maximize artist revenue, capped collection size reflects demand and reduces speculation
- JPG: NFT curation protocol live with Deep Time exhibition
- Proof of Humanity: use yield on ETH to buy and burn UBI tokens
Regulation/business/tokens
- Uniswap.org interface removed tokens such as derivatives due to perceived regulatory pressure; Uniswap protocol and alternative interfaces unaffected
- Proposed US infrastructure bill would require KYC for every address
- US Senator Elizabeth Warren said in committee hearing: “crypto puts the [financial] system at the whims of some shadowy faceless group of super coders and miners”
- DAO Treasury management using options, stablecoins and indices, borrowing against the treasury and range tokens
- Simon de la Rouviere: NFT economies, creators vs collectors and collection sizes
- Draft NFT licences, exclusive and non-exclusive variants
- Five narratives for Ethereum with valuation models
General
- Fortune: DeFi takes on Wall Street; magazine cover art by pplpleasr
- Bring Your Own Algorithm, choose how you experience the metaverse
- Cloudflare: AWS’s egregious egress
- Vitalik: against overuse of the Gini coefficient measure of inequality
Job Listings
- Ethereum Foundation: Test Engineer for consensus and execution layers
- Synthetix: 2 Solidity engineers to work direct with Kain Warwick in Sydney
- Nethermind internship program
Want to reach people experienced with Ethereum? List your job here. $345 per line (~75 character limit including spaces), payable in ETH (or 345 DAI or 345 USDC) to abcoathup.eth. Questions? abcoathup at-gmail
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-july-31-2021/
Dates of Note
Upcoming dates of note (new/changes in bold):
- Aug 1 – applications close for Secureum auditing bootcamp
- Aug 4 (or 5) – London hard fork
- Aug 12 – applications close for EF small grants for events
- Aug 13 – Sign in with Ethereum RFP extended deadline
- Aug 17 – applications close for written pieces on public goods projects
- Aug 27-29 – Edcon (Shenzhen/online)
- Oct 1-3 – EthAtlanta enterprise-focused hackathon & keynotes
- Oct 22-24 – ETH Lisbon
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