Week in Ethereum News, February 19, 2022 - thanks to Kwenta & Synthetix for making this issue possible!
Eth News and Links
Mainnet execution layer
Latest core devs call video [audio issue first 8 mins]. Notes from Tim Beiko:
RANDOM opcode being renamed to PREVRANDAO
Kurtosis PoW switch off testing demo with a local multiclient testnet
Withdrawals discussion on draft EIPs & execution layer withdrawal contract
Proposed EIP4803 cap on gas limit in a transaction
Geth v1.10.16: bug fixes
mev-geth v1.10.15-mev0.5.0: calculate megabundles when received
Erigon v2022.02.03: Sepolia testnet support, stability fixes
Besu v22.1.0
PluGeth: fork of Geth designed for plugins, Cardinal plugin for streaming replication system
Otterscan Sepolia testnet explorer
Sample block with a Verkle proof and utility to decode & verify
Proof of Stake consensus layer
Staking pools dashboard: very high usage of supermajority client by exchanges, estimated usage over 90% for Coinbase & Kraken & over 75% for Binance
Nimbus v1.7.0: 3-5x faster startup, <1GB memory usage on mainnet, trusted node sync, Keymanager API supports remote keystores
Lodestar client setup video
Vouch (multi-node validator): avoids client diversity issues by not using supermajority client for attestations
Beaconcha.in bug believed to be source for claims of uncaught slashings
Nimbus Era files: early research for storing & retrieving historical data
PoW switch off
merge-devnet-4 (precursor to public Kiln testnet) is live, had multiple forks but transitioned to PoS without intervention
EIPs/Standards
EIP4824: Decentralized Autonomous Organizations
EIP4812: Exodus
EIP4803: Limit transaction gas to a maximum of 2^63-1
EIP4800: Non-Fungible Token Wrapping Standard
Layer2
Urbit naive rollup is live
Optimism fee explainer, how fees were lowered by 30%, fixed overhead now 2100 gas per transaction with a fee scalar of 1.24
This newsletter is made possible thanks to Kwenta by Synthetix!
Kwenta is a derivatives trading platform, live on Optimism, offering real-world and on-chain synthetic assets using the power of the Synthetix protocol.
The Sovereignty Phase, an 8-week campaign marking the launch of Synthetic Perpetual Futures, Kwenta V2, and the KWENTA token, has just been kicked off and will include a community raise, trading competitions, liquidity mining rewards, and more.
To start the Sovereignty Phase, Kwenta is hosting a community raise, providing pool contributors with early access to the token.
The raise is live here on Aelin: raise.kwenta.io
Stuff for developers
Solidity v0.8.12: reduces size of JavaScript/Wasm binaries, solc-js partially ported to TypeScript and bug fixes
Foundry fuzzer: improved random uint generation, discard fuzz runs that don’t meet criteria using assume cheatcode
Blacksmith: user contract generator for Foundry, test contract interaction like an EOA user
Foundry Rust Monorepo Template for developing Rust applications using Foundry for contract development
Truffle v5.5.0: use Truffle Dashboard to deploy with MetaMask, supports hardware wallets and Hardhat
Brownie v1.18.0: Ganache v7 support, override storage for eth_call, config EVM version per language and use latest compiler setting
Nethereum (.Net library) v4.2.0: human readable ABI, EIP712 improvements, support for GnosisSafe, MultiSend & Sign-In with Ethereum
ctc: Python package and CLI for historical data analysis of EVM chains
Heliaia: analyze transactions before broadcasting, sits between wallet & node
Detect off-chain evaluation using view function values such as msg.sender
StealthDrop: ERC20 airdrops that can be claimed anonymously using zk proofs, currently has vulnerability
noble-ed25519 v1.6.0: ZIP-215 support, audited by Cure53
Map of ENS contracts
Deep dive into OlympusDAO contracts
Accounts in Ethereum explainer
Security
RigoBlock exploited, all tokens in Dragos except ETH and USDT at risk, set multiple allowances function missing only owner modifier
Echidna v2.0.0 (fuzzer): assertion failure & integer over/underflow detection in Solidity v0.8, contract destruction detection and max value discovery
Uniswap oracle attack simulator: quantify risks on v3 TWAP price oracles
Austin Williams: Chainlink VRF operators can attempt favorable outcomes, Correction: VRF operators must control substantial hashpower to influence bias randomness
Ice phishing could be detected when EOA granted multiple ERC20 approvals
Ecosystem
Dates announced for Devcon 6 in Bogotá: October 11-14
ETHDenver videos
Schelling point videos
Ethereum Foundation Q3 & Q4 grantees
Etherscan Gas Tracker adds cost estimates for common transactions
Gas dashboard on Dune Analytics
Enterprise
Twitter adds ETH addresses to Tips feature, ENS not currently supported
J.P. Morgan: metaverse opportunities [PDF] with lounge in Decentraland
Battleship: simple game implementation using Baseline Protocol
Bud Light NFTs sold for flat fee in US, Nouns glasses in Super Bowl commercial
Universal Music Group partners with Curio for NFTs
Application layer
Risk Harbor v2 supports Tracer Finance on Arbitrum
Strips Finance (interest rate DEX) beta live on Arbitrum
Vortex (on-chain basis trading strategy) live on Arbitrum
Clipper (small trade DEX) live on Optimism
Enzyme v4 Sulu (asset management) live on mainnet
Future of MakerDAO: focus on due-diligence of protocols wanting to mint
Synthetix dynamic exchange fee explainer
Instadapp Uniswap staking rewards portal to create, stake & manage
0xSplits: split incoming funds between recipients using preset percentages
Livepeer migrated to Arbitrum
OpenSea updates contract, NFT listings will expire Feb 25 unless migrated
x2y2: NFT marketplace with airdrop for listings and rewards for staking
Propy sells US house via NFT auction
Job Listings
Kwenta seeks Frontend Engineer, Solidity Engineer & Marketing Lead
Roles at Gnosis Sr DevRel Eng. Sr Production/Reliability Eng. DevOps Eng.
Nomic Foundation hiring Rust Tech Lead & Ethereum Tech Lead
Internship program with Nethermind (1-3 month)
Senior Technical Writer to take ownership & completely redo the Geth docs
EF research hiring Networking Engineer
Re7 Capital – a DeFi yield fund – is hiring analysts and data engineers
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
BlockFi $100 million settlement [PDF] with US SEC & states for BlockFi Interest Accounts; SEC Commissioner Pierce’s statement
TRUST: Travel Rule compliance solution by US crypto exchanges
Jake Chervinsky: US stablecoin regulation update
Canada using Emergencies Act for financial service providers to freeze accounts believed to be affiliated with protests without a court order
US Justice Department appoints first Director of cryptocurrency enforcement team and reveals FBI’s virtual asset exploitation unit
US Federal Reserve prohibits senior officials holding investments in cryptocurrency amongst other investments
UK tax authority first seizure of NFTs in tax fraud investigation
Packy McCormick’s tokenomics resource list
General
Social engineering scam using token approvals
80 column default can be traced back to foolscap paper size from late 1400s
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-february-19-2022
Dates of Note
Upcoming dates of note (new/changes in bold):
Feb 23 – Mar 11 – Codeless Conduct no-code hackathon (virtual)
Mar 9-24 – Gitcoin Grants Round 13
Mar 11-20 – Ethereum Rio
Mar 15 – Cryptocurrency Class starts (virtual)
Mar 16 – submission deadline for Underhanded Solidity Contest
Mar 17-18 – ETH Austin summit
Mar 29-31 – ETHDubai
Apr 7-9 – ETH Portland hackathon
Apr 18-25 – Devconnect (Amsterdam)
Apr 22-24 – ETHAmsterdam
May 3-8 – spaghettETH (Milan)
May 20 – US Fed CBDC discussion paper feedback deadline
Jun 10-12 – ETHPrague
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)
Sep 12-14 – DappCon (Berlin)
Oct 11-14 – Devcon 6 (Bogotá)
Nov 4-6 – ETHSanFrancisco
Dec 2-4 – ETHTaipei
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