Week in Ethereum News, December 31, 2021 - thanks to NEAR for making this issue possible!
Eth News and Links
Mainnet execution layer
Akula client preview, written in Rust, can currently run alongside Erigon to sync, full validation from genesis in < 24 hours, enterprise-friendly Apache 2.0 license
History of account abstraction and EIP4337 proposal
Archive node running on Raspberry Pi 4, using Erigon. Also running a Nimbus staking client on same device
EIPs/Standards
EIP4610: ERC721 Delegator Extension
Proof of Stake consensus layer
Dankrad’s proposed new sharding design: adds a transaction type with sharded data as call data, allows tight integration between Layer 1 & 2, higher computing requirements for block builders
Consensus specs v1.1.8: sets Bellatrix as upgrade name & new test vectors
StakeWise Metro: allows external node operators
Layer2
Huobi Global adds ETH deposit and withdrawals on Arbitrum
Argent zksync wallet integrates ZigZag exchange, flat $1 trade & network fee
#L222 is the “official” hashtag for Layer 2 adoption in 2022 🦆
Proposal for efficient zk-EVM arithmetization from ConsenSys Applied R&D
This newsletter is made possible thanks to NEAR!
NEAR has launched Simple Nightshade sharding to pave the way for greater throughput!
Simple Nightshade has four different state shards. For devs and users, it’s important to note that NEAR treats cross-contract calls the same regardless of whether two contracts are on the same shard.
Early in 2022, phase 1 will introduce chunk-only producers, who only validate one shard and allow for further decentralization via more validators. Full Nightshade is scheduled for q3 2022 and will feature full sharding of both state and processing.
Learn more about what’s going on in NEAR in the community-driven NEARweek newsletter.
Stuff for developers
Solidity Language Server explainer: every IDE with Language Server support can support Solidity out of the box
Foundry forge run command, runs single file contract as a script, supports cheatcodes, mainnet forking and debug logs
Fuzzing complex projects with Echidna, example uses Sushi's BentoBox
Advanced optimization tips for Yul & Solidity
OpenZeppelin Nile v0.3.0 (StarkNet projects in Cairo): deploy accounts and send transactions, mainnet & Görli compatible
ShortString: immutable bytes32 can be used for short strings (Solidity doesn’t support immutable strings), convert back to string in a view function
erc721-drop: NFT drop template with constants for supply cap and price, uses Solmate, Solidity test with Foundry, AGPL v3 license
Captcha-protected NFT distribution using an off-chain signing service
merkle-airdrop-starter: scripts, contracts and frontend, for an airdrop
Security
Polygon lack of balance/allowance check postmortem, 9 billion MATIC was at risk, 800k MATIC stolen, $2.2 million + 500k MATIC bounties paid
Bent Finance postmortem, rogue dev upgraded to contract with hard coded balances, funds returned
Ecosystem
Fishing for an ECDSA nonce reuse bot with Ether as bait
Flashbots MEV Roast & research workshop videos
Tutela: check anonymity of an address on Tornado Cash
Enterprise
Gamestop NFT marketplace opens applications for creators
Application layer
Aelin deal coordination protocol live on Optimism
Real World Asset market live, built on Centrifuge and AAVE
Sperax algorithmic USD stablecoin beta live on Arbitrum
Tokenized Time: buy, sell and trade time, proof of concept
briq composable blocks to construct NFTs, alpha on StarkNet
Cryptopunks decentralized market beta, MIT license
Movement: 3D browser based gallery for an address/ENS
Gnosis Guild’s Zodiac bridge module allows a DAO on one network to control assets and interact with systems on another network
Paris Hilton adds ENS to Twitter
Job Listings
Certora seeks SR SW Eng, Security Res, Security Eng & Community Manager
The VAC team at Status.im are looking for a blockchain engineer
Geth team is looking for a Senior Technical Writer
Kwenta seeks Frontend Engineer, Solidity Engineer & Marketing Lead
Are you a p2p networking whiz? EF research hiring Networking Engineer
Textile is hiring! Blockchain Eng, Backend Eng, and Partner 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
Be mindful of low effort airdrops: OpenDAO’s SOS based on amount spent on OpenSea; Gas DAO’s GAS based on gas spent; visualizations of SOS airdrop claim and analysis of top 25 recipients, 68% dumped their tokens
Mirrortable: concept of a capitalization table mirrored on-chain to streamline angel investing
Proposal to port Aave v3 to StarkNet Layer 2
Bored Ape token expected Q1 2022 (beware of scams)
South Korean centralized exchanges to block transfers to non-verified addresses
Bank of Mexico plans for CBDC by 2024
General
Web3 is self certifying: authorship of content is proven with cryptographic user identifiers & content-addressed data
LastPass warns some users of unusual login attempt, due to credential stuffing, some alerts triggered in error
T-mobile notifies small number of customers their SIMs were swapped
Halo2-franchise-proof: experimental port of Vocdoni voting anonymizer zk circuit to the ZCash Halo2 proving system which doesn’t have a trusted setup
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-december-31-2021
Dates of Note
Upcoming dates of note (new/changes in bold):
Jan 13 – MEV in 2021 (virtual)
Jan 14-16 – ETHGlobal’s NFTHack (virtual)
Feb 15 - Apr 5 – Cryptocurrency Class (virtual)
Feb 17 – Schelling Point (Denver)
Feb 18-20 – ETHDenver
Mar 14-17 – Eth Rio
Mar 29-31 – ETHDubai
Apr 22-24 – ETHAmsterdam
May 3-8 – spaghettETH (Milan)
Jun 10-12 – ETHPrague
Jun 21-23 – NFT.NYC
Jun 24-26 – ETHNewYork
Jul 19-21 – EthCC 5 (Paris)
Aug 19-21 – ETHMexicoCity
Nov 4-6 – ETHSanFrancisco
Dec 2-4 – ETHTaipei
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