Week in Ethereum News, February 25, 2023 - sponsored by Mimic
Eth News and Links
Shapella (Shanghai + Capella) upgrade
Sepolia testnet upgrades to Shapella February 28
Consensus layer Sepolia releases:
Lighthouse v3.5.0
Lodestar v1.5.0-rc.0
Nimbus v23.2.0
Prysm v3.2.1
Teku v23.2.0
Execution layer Sepolia releases:
Besu v23.1.1-RC1
Ethereum JS v0.7
Erigon v2.39.0
Geth v1.11.2
Nethermind v1.17.0
EF blog post for Sepolia upgrade to Shapella
consensus-specs v1.3.0-rc.3: adds test for validator deposit & BLS change in one block, frees EIP4844 blobs from blocks and adds KZG API
Latest all core devs – consensus (ACDC) call video. Notes from Ben Edgington & Christine Kim:
circuit breaker (fallback to local building) tested using mock builder in Hive tests
MEV-Boost running successfully on Zhejiang testnet
SSE discussion so any client (rather than just Prysm fork) can trigger block building
Flashbots: MEV-Boost stack changes for Capella
Dencun (Cancun + Deneb) upgrade
KZG Ceremony:
54,000+ contributors, 4000+ in the lobby, 16 days left in first general contribution period
Latest EIP4844 implementers call video. Notes from Terence: client teams freeing blobs from blocks, devnet expected in a few weeks once decoupled
Layer 1
Visualization of withdrawal credentials (0x00 vs 0x01) over time
Beverly Hills (Verkle tree) testnet is now multi-client, Nethermind synced along with Geth
Reth (execution client) modular p2p architecture can be used as standalone component
Research
Recent Latest Message Driven GHOST: synchronous dynamically available & resilient to bounded asynchronous periods, proposed replacement for Gasper’s LMD-GHOST
For Stakers
Superphiz: best practices to avoid getting slashed (only 226 validators have been slashed)
Stake Local dashboard: multi-client Grafana dashboard
Beaconcha.in explorer adds BLS change signature & broadcast of voluntary exits for Zhejiang testnet
Obol running distributed validator on mainnet with 98.6% average effectiveness
Layer 2
Arbitrum One tops Ethereum mainnet in transactions, first rollup to achieve more transactions in a day than mainnet
Base: Coinbase layer 2 built on Optimism’s OP Stack, live on testnet, transaction fees paid in ETH with a portion of sequencer revenue going to funding public goods
Optimism’s Superchain concept: network of OP Chains with shared bridge & communication layer
Patrick McCorry: rollup transaction finality: sequencer’s promise, order finality and execution settlement
EIPs/Standards
ERCs:
This newsletter is made possible thanks to Mimic!
Does your app or DAO want to automate your DeFi operations? With Mimic, you can automate swapping, bridging and treasury management.
Check out our Smart Vaults to automate DeFi operations in a secure, trustless, and non-custodial way.
We’ll be at EthDenver if you want to request a demo IRL. Backed by Starbloom Ventures.
Stuff for developers
Solidity v0.8.19: adds operators for user-defined value types and fix for deployment bloat (code only used in creation code was included in runtime bytecode)
Solidity proposals for improving try/catch, feedback wanted
Foundry:
Testnet.fyi: short lived serverless testnet as a service using Anvil & AWS, proof of concept
Statistical approximation in Solidity
AztecConnectAuction: cross-chain sealed-bid auction using Aztec Connect
Solidity external library cost Blur airdrop claimers $34k, internal would have saved ~2600 gas each
Huffmate v1.1 (contract library in Huff): SendEthers utility, ECDSA & BytesLib implementation
EVM disassembly guide: navigating metadata & why bytecode 6142 breaks most disassemblers
sol2uml v2.5.0: storage variables are parsed in contract storage diagrams
ContractReader.io adds live inline values
Seaport v1.4: fix for v1.3 so zone & contract offerer checks applied after transfers
Alchemy Create Web3 Dapp: NextJs based starter kit with components & templates
Emojimon: guide to create Pokémon-inspired on-chain game using MUD stack
EKO2022 CTF Phoenixtto solution
Ethernaut CTF solutions in Huff (added to solutions in Vyper)
Gitcoin Passport Scorer API: gate apps based on passport score
SuperNova implementation in Rust, experimental
Security
Oasis multisig upgraded a contract to recover funds from Wormhole exploiter based on UK court order
Ecosystem
Danny Ryan’s reflections on the state of Ethereum: technological concerns, execution layer client diversity, core dev incentives, capture, ossification and L2 alignment
Tim Beiko: testnet past, present & future:
Goerli: test validator setups, EthStaker offer low Goerli ETH deposits, deprecated
Holešovice: planned for later this year as replacement for Goerli
Sepolia: test apps, no supply issues as Sepolia ETH supply can be inflated
Ephemery: test validator setups on ephemeral testnet
EF Q4 grantees share $4.4million in funding
MetaMask disabling eth_sign RPC signature method by default
Enterprise
Spotify pilots NFT gated playlists on Android in selected countries
Application layer
Synthetix v3 deployed on mainnet & Optimism
Aave voted to freeze BUSD reserve on v2
ENS ETHDenver custom sticker pack pre-register and set your avatar
NFT marketplace wars:
Blur NFT trading volume: 20% from 15 wallets, 50% from ~300 wallets
125k ETH NFT wash trade (0% marketplace fee) via flash loan
Uniswap: use any ERC20 token to buy NFTs
Dankrad Feist’s explainer for creators: NFT contracts can’t enforce royalties
Ethereum Postal Service: send physical letters via a contract call (but don’t dox anyone)
Backed bCOIN tokenized tracker of Coinbase COIN, non-US qualified investors only
Job Listings
Frax Finance is expanding their official core developer team. Apply here!
Immutable is hiring a Protocol Blockchain Engineer.
Cyfrin.io is hiring senior security engineers $190k-$300k.
Request Network is hiring a Community & Communication Manager
Shell Protocol team is hiring senior Solidity devs & more, remote or Hawaii
Certora is hiring a Senior Enterprise Sales Rep.
Job listings: $600 for four issues (75 character limit), payable in ETH/DAI/USDC to abcoathup.eth on mainnet or Layer 2. Questions? abcoathup at-gmail
Regulation/business/tokens
US regulators guidance for banks on liquidity risks from crypto entities
FTX Japan reopens withdrawals
Forsage founders charged with fraud in Ponzi scheme
Jon Charbonneau: how value flows through Ethereum and why issuance is misunderstood
General/crypto
Trail of Bits: VSCode extensions & VSCode vulnerabilities disclosed
Static analysis detectors for common vulnerabilities in Circom programs
wienr: CLI reader for Week in Ethereum News
Follow @WeekinEthNews to find out what the most clicked links are. Follow @abcoathup and @evan_van_ness 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-25-2023
Upcoming Dates of Note
(new/changes in bold)
Feb 27 – deadline for EF academic grants round
Feb 28 – Sepolia testnet upgrades to Shapella
Mar 2-5 – ETHDenver Hackathon
Mar 10-29 – Scaling Ethereum (ETHGlobal) virtual
Mar 11 – Ethereum Guatemala
Mar 15-16 – ETHDubai
Mar 16-18 – ETH Porto
Mar 28-30 – Ethereum Rio
Apr 12-14 – NFT NYC
Apr 14-16 – ETHGlobal Tokyo
Apr 14-16 – EthereumZuri.ch conference & hackathon
Apr 21-25 – EthTaipei hackathon & conference
Apr 27-30 – Istanbul ETH Privacy conference & hackathon
May 5-7 – ETHMalaysia conference & hackathon
May 5-7 – ETHTallinn hackathon
May 9-10 – NFT Tallinn conference
May 19-23 – EDCON Montenegro (changed from Vienna)
May 20-21 – ETHDam (Amsterdam) conference & hackathon
May 24-26 – Spaghett ETH (Naples) conference
May 26–28 – ETHGlobal Istanbul
Jun 2-4 – ETH Seoul
Jun 9-11 – ETHPrague conference & hackathon
Jun 23–25 – ETHGlobal Toronto
Jul 5-7 – ETHBarcelona
Jul 17-20 – EthCC (Paris)
Jul 21–23 – ETHGlobal Paris
Aug 16-19 – Ethereum Argentina (Buenos Aires)
Sep 10-12 – Ethereum Singapore hackathon & conference
Sep 22–24 – ETHGlobal New York
Oct 6–25 – ETHOnline (ETHGlobal) virtual
Sign up to receive this newsletter weekly