Eth News and Links
Mainnet execution layer
- Update your clients for Arrow Glacier upgrade (difficulty bomb delay) before December 5:
- Geth v1.10.12: native Go call tracing (2.5x faster)
- Erigon v2021.11.02: official beta suffix
- Nethermind v1.11.7: TxPool optimization, trace_callMany and tracing improvements
- Besu v21.10.1
- EthereumJS VM v5.6.0
- Latest core devs call video. Notes from Tim Beiko:
- Multi-client devnet to switch off PoW expected late next week
- Discussion of how execution layer clients will identify network upgrade for PoW switch off
- EIP4396 to update EIP1559 to use time rather than blocks won’t be included in PoW switch off as don’t want to delay
- EIP4444 proposal to limit historical data over p2p to 1 year
- Initial PoW switch off execution layer spec
- Geth todo list to switch off PoW
- JSON-RPC spec has great first issues for devs looking to contribute and break into core development
EIPs/Standards
- EIP editors wanted: volunteer a few hours per week, focus on your area of expertise, ensure EIPs are well-formatted, technically complete and meet minimum quality bar
- EIP4430: Described Transactions
- EIP4444: Bound Historical Data in Execution Clients
Proof of Stake consensus layer
- Kintsugi testnet (PoW switch off) v2 spec: engine API forkchoiceUpdated returns payloadId rather than both layers calculating it
- Optimistic sync research (post PoW switch off): sync Beacon Chain without verifying execution components, once execution client synced then inform consensus client of validity of transactions
- Teku v21.11.1: fixed blocks endpoints compliance, support for Apple silicon and LevelDB on Linux/arm64, improved performance when running large number of validators
- Nimbus v1.5.4: hotfix for rare issue leading to loss of attestations and sync committee messages
- Beacon chain light client design
- Rocket Pool (staking pool) is live, users can run a node or provide liquidity for stakers, capacity will be raised again on November 15
Layer2
- $5 billion locked in Layer2
- Optimism upgrade to EVM equivalence is live; MetaMask v10.5.1 supports new fee scheme
- StarkNet (zk rollup) opens project onboarding for Alpha mainnet
- Across Protocol: bridge from Arbitrum to mainnet built to showcase UMA’s Optimistic Oracle
- DAI Wormhole: teleport DAI between L2s and mainnet, burn DAI on one network, provide an oracle attestation of the burn, then mint DAI on another network; no need for counterparty liquidity
- How rollups scale Ethereum: rollups need less validators than mainnet for security and state growth can be spread across multiple rollups
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Stuff for developers
- Solidity v0.8.10: external function call optimizations, EVM code generator for pure Yul mode and SMTChecker reports contract invariants & reentrancy properties
- ENSTools: use ENS instead of an address including DNS not yet claimed as ENS; onlyENSOwner modifier, push & pull funds/NFTs to ENS
- xdeployer: Hardhat plugin to deploy contracts with deterministic address (uses CREATE2), beta, currently only selected testnets
- Intro to DappTools testing: write tests in Solidity, fuzz testing and symbolic execution
- Nile v0.2.0: Python development environment for StarkNet contracts, supports Cairo v0.5.0, uses starknet-devnet as default local network
- Nethereum explorer (.NET explorer & simple wallet template): migrated to Blazor & Maui
- Etherscan adds more support for ERC1155 multi token standard
- WalletConnect v2.0 explainer: multi-chain support, pairing & session separation, JSON-RPC permissions, improved session management and decentralized message relaying (using Waku v2.0)
Security
- samczsum’s pinball CTF used Etherscan source verification 0day, anything between solc metadata markers was ignored; solution to CTF
- Smart Contract Security Registry: register to receive info on known incidents or threats for OpenZeppelin Contracts & selected libraries
Ecosystem
- Trent’s updated Ethereum roadmap: PoW switch off in 5-8 months, Shanghai upgrade in 10-12 months and ongoing research for data sharding, state expiry & weak statelessness
- Energy use of the network will be reduced by ~99.95% when Proof of Work is switched off forever
- Sandwiching that benefits users: provide Just in Time liquidity on Uniswap v3 to frontrun a large trade and then backrun the trade to remove liquidity, gives better execution price to traders
- Gas fees during NFT launches: base fee & priority fee combine to create tabletop around 2000 gwei
- Etherscan: review and revoke NFT and ERC20 approvals
Enterprise
- KINGSHIP metaverse group formed by 10:22PM (Universal Music label), 3 Bored Apes & 1 Mutant to release music, NFTs and experiences
- Discord hints at Ethereum integration but then announces no plans to ship after backlash
- CDBCgo from ConsenSys and Visa one of three winners of Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Global CDBC Challenge
Application layer
- Curve ended USDM gauge after alleged governance attack, turning off Mochi’s pool CRV rewards
- 1inch Router v4: separate routers added to lower gas costs and DAI permit support
- SongADAO: co-op to own Song A Day catalog copyright and royalties (Disclosure: I own a Song A Day NFT)
- Sign-in with Ethereum demo implementation, integrates with ENS to display ENS name and avatar
Job Listings
- Ethereum Foundation hiring a Research Engineer for PoS consensus layer
- OpenZeppelin hiring a Open Source Developer
- Toucan: Solidity dev to build web3 infrastructure to reverse climate change
Reach people experienced with Ethereum. $420 for two issues (~75 character limit), payable in ETH/DAI/USDC to abcoathup.eth. Questions? abcoathup at-gmail
Regulation/business/tokens
- US infrastructure bill passed, crypto provisions take effect Jan 1, 2024
- Mastercard launching crypto-funded payment cards in Asia Pacific
- Gnosis propose xDAI sidechain merger to become Gnosis Chain
- A post-EIP1559 flows-based Ethereum price model
General
- Visualization of crypto vs internet adoption: crypto is where the internet was in 1998
- 16% of US adults have used, invested or traded crypto
- Robinhood customer support social engineering incident, unauthorized access to 5m email addresses, 2m names, ~300 personal info and ~10 extensive account details
- 2FA bots used to gain access to centralized accounts
- Cloudflare: performance of TLS with drop-in post-quantum signatures
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-november-13-2021
Dates of Note
Upcoming dates of note (new/changes in bold):
- Oct 25 – Dec 13 – Gitcoin DAO Global hackathon (virtual)
- Nov 16 – Formal Verification in the Ethereum Ecosystem
- Nov 19 – Applications close for Applied ZK learning group
- Dec 1-16 – Gitcoin Grants Round 12
- Dec ~8 – Arrow Glacier upgrade block 13,773,000
- Jan 24-26 – Science of Blockchain Conference (Stanford University)
- Feb 11-20 – ETHDenver
- Mar 28-30 – ETHDubai
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