Eth News and Links
Mainnet execution layer
- Latest core devs call video. Notes from Tim Beiko:
- Consensus API discussion
- Work in progress sync algorithm post PoW switch off
- Fixed gas limit EIP debate
- Erigon 2021.09.01-alpha: call tracing improved, bad.block flag changed to use block hash, fix for Ropsten testnet diversion
- Nethermind v1.11.1: support for eth/66 (as eth/65 is being deprecated) and eth_feeHistory
- Parallel EVM execution engine experiment: 120 tx block, 0 contention had 5x speedup, 100% contention + pessimistic had 17% slowdown
EIPs/Standards
Proof of stake consensus layer
- Prater testnet upgrade to Altair: minor client-specific issues have been patched or under investigation
- Client diversity needed to ensure safest transition from PoW to PoS; dominant client needs to be < 50%, ideally < 33%
- Stakers get slashed for contradicting themselves, not for going offline or picking the wrong fork
- Tips from staking on a Raspberry Pi 4 with consensus and execution clients on one device
- Understanding attestation packing efficiencies: an anonymized look at the packing efficiency of different staking clients and pools
- Stereum (beacon chain client installer) launcher v1.5
Layer2
- Arbitrum beta, initial cap of 80k arbgas per second (equivalent of mainnet), token bridge restricted to approved tokens, 7 day exits
- Celer cBridge adds support for Optimism for 3 minute exits; transfer between between mainnet, Optimism, Arbitrum and selected sidechains
- StarkNet Alpha 2: composability, local testing and moved to Goerli; OpenZeppelin developing contracts library
- Immutable X opens gas free NFT minting and trading
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Stuff for developers
- Update web3.js for EIP1559 support so you don’t cost your users money
- Fe (EVM language) roadmap to production in 2021
- Remix IDE v0.17.0: Solidity defaults to 0.8.7, EVM default is London, Hardhat console logs in Remix Terminal
- Etherscan adds support for ERC1155 multi token standard
- Guide to using SMTChecker to check Solidity contract invariants
- Tenderly adds support for Vyper language
- ts-essentials v8.1.0 (TypeScript): fixes for minor issues
- fractional-rs (Rust): CLI & utilities for fractional.art, only supports bid
- zk-ml: demo of private machine learning. Linear regression in a circom circuit and on chain encrypted data transfer with SNARKS
- Guide to adding support for ENS in multi network apps
- GitPOAP: code repository maintainers can award POAPs to contributors
- Tutorial to create a staking dapp using scaffold-eth
- Ideas and wish lists to inspire your web3 project
Security
- Cream Finance exploit of 462m AMP and 2.8k ETH, ERC777 reentrancy on AMP token
- xToken exploit with $4.5 million loss, incorrect require statement allowed function to be publicly callable
- OpenZeppelin Contracts TimelockController vulnerability postmortem
- DeFiYield’s database of DeFi scams, hacks and exploits
- Writing Dafny proofs to formally verify beacon chain deposit contract
- Act v0.1: formal specification language for high level descriptions of smart contracts
Ecosystem
- First full day of negative issuance due to EIP1559 burn from NFT transactions
- Tim Beiko on the evolution of the Ethereum scalability roadmap
- EIP1559 didn’t increase gas prices, NFTs did; set priority fee and max fee to not overpay
- Overspending on gas fees reduced by EIP1559
- Edcon 2021 videos
- Flashbot searchers compete on MEV extraction efficiency, percentage of gas used by each bundle decreases over time
- Etherscan token holdings page for a given address, beta release
- MetaMask has over 10 million monthly active users
Enterprise
- Baseledger testnet: designed for storing and managing baseline proofs, fixed transaction fees denominated and paid in fiat
- Guide to deploying Quorum
Application layer
- Loot explainer: adventurer items as on chain text, bottom up NFT as possible seed for gaming universe; every address has synthetic loot
- 1 million POAPs have been minted
- Bored and Mutant Ape community receiving 3D models to use in metaverse
- Animal coloring book generative NFT, onchain SVG colored on transfer
- Trader: NFT trading with off-chain open order book, using social links
- Doge NFT fractionalized as $DOG by PleasrDAO
- NFT derivative floor perpetual, synthetics tracking the floor price of a project, mint by locking up an NFT from the project
- Dfdao thesis: crypto-gaming governance is rapidly iterable, at bleeding edge of decentralized governance design
- Synthetix V2x scope: L1 improvements and tech debt, Optimism migration, new mechanisms and governance
Regulation/business/tokens
- BitConnect, founder and US promoter charged by US SEC alleging $2 billion fraud via unregistered offering of investments to retail
- US SEC inquiring into DeFi including Uniswap Labs
- Spurred by crypto-friendly Sen Toomey (R-PA), US Senate Banking Committee asking for public proposals on crypto regulation
- University of Texas professor’s research suggests EOS ICO pumped via washtrading
- Challenges to scale DAOs: legal clarity, limiting liability of stakeholders, hiring, compliance for workers and governance
- How to vet crypto projects: evaluate the problem being solved, the team, audits, the community and what could go wrong technically
- LarvaLabs (CryptoPunks, Autoglyphs and Meebits) signs with Hollywood agency for content deals
General
- The story of the fallout from the NSA’s 2008 insertion of a backdoor into an encryption standard
- Long (and surprisingly interesting!) read: History of bug bounties
- The case for engineers to leave FAANG for crypto
- Vitalik’s insider Q&A: excitement for zk-SNARKs, NFTs are most surprising use case, 8 cofounder regret and other insights
Job Listings
- Mark Cuban is seeking a web3 developer. Send a front-end sample to apply
- Dark Forest: Full-Stack Developer
- Futureswap is hiring a Product Marketing Manager
- Vac (Status) is looking for a smart contracts protocol engineer for Waku
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-september-4-2021/
Dates of Note
Upcoming dates of note (new/changes in bold):
- Sep 8 – Gitcoin Grants Round 11 and hackathon starts (support Week in Eth News)
- Sep 15-17 – MetaCartel MCON Denver
- Sep 17-Oct 15 – ETHOnline hackathon
- Sep 30 – NFT Fest Australia (virtual)
- Oct 1-3 – EthAtlanta enterprise-focused hackathon & keynotes
- Oct 20-21 – LisCon (Lisbon)
- Oct 22-24 – ETH Lisbon hackathon
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