Week in Ethereum News, October 19, 2024
Eth News and Links
Eth R&D protocol call (All Core Devs)
Consensus layer focused protocol call (ACDC #144):
Pectra upgrade:
Spec refinement discussions
Blob increase:
Base blob increase proposal presented: target 5, max 8 blobs
engine_getBlobsV1 initial results: bandwidth reduced for download but increased for upload
EIP7742 uncouple blob count between CL/EL: makes changing blob count easier, consensus layer teams support scheduling for inclusion, review on next week's call with execution layer teams
EIP7783 controlled gas limit increase
EIP7782 reduce slot time to 8s: 2-4s would be more attractive option, needs more analysis, could conflict with future potential upgrades
Pectra (Prague + Electra) upgrade
Pectra-devnet-4: launched; 20% offline (10% Grandine & 10% Erigon)
Weekly testing call #9: fusaka-devnet-0 planned for ~2 weeks time & ssz-devnet-0 launched
EIP2537 BLS precompiles:
Feedback wanted on planned EIP2537 usage & need for subgroup checks
EIP2537 BLS breakout: discussed removing subgroup checks & precompiles are underpriced
Fusaka (Osaka + Fulu) upgrade
PeerDAS breakout #10: continuing to debug peerdas-devnet-3, unfinalized for over a week
EOF implementers call #60: discussed ERC721 support using EXTCODE/HASCODE, EXT*CALL return codes and EOFCREATE hashing
Layer 1
Giulio Rebuffo (Erigon): proposal to raise the gas limit via EIP7783
ProbeLab Hermes: GossipSub listener & tracer for libp2p
Péter Szilágyi: Geth prototype of ExEx (Reth Execution Extensions)
Ephemery testnet incentives for genesis validators, infrastructure & client implementations
Centralization watch: threatening the value of your ETH
🚨 Lido at 28%, still too close to 33.3% threshold
Client diversity (via clientdiversity.org):
Execution layer: Geth ~52% majority
Consensus layer: Prysm 37% & Lighthouse 33.4%
Any client bug over 33.3% could mean loss of finality
Better geographic diversity is optimal, particularly outside of North America & Europe
Client Releases
Consensus layer:
Execution layer:
Layer 2
World Chain (OP Stack rollup) open to public
Fuel Ignition (FuelVM) live, UTXO based
EIPs/Standards
EIPs (Ethereum improvement proposals):
RIPs (rollup improvement proposals):
RIP7789: Cross rollup contingent transactions
ERCs (application layer):
Stuff for developers
Underhanded Solidity contest: Gerard Persoon solo winner with fallback from transient storage
OpenZeppelin Contracts v5.1: adds P256 & RSA signature validation; MerkleTree, CircularBuffer & Heap data structures; StorageSlot, ReentrancyGuardTransient & SlotDerivation utilities; updated Arrays, Base64, CREATE2, Strings & Math
Guide to invariant testing using Recon Builder for scaffolding a Foundry project
Echidna v2.2.5: adds Cancun support, warns if an assert isn’t hit in assert mode, adds cheat codes and collects coverage during deployment
Pcaversaccio white hat frontrunning: Bash script using Foundry cast & chisel to secure funds from compromised wallets
Security
Radiant Capital $50M exploit on Arbitrum & BSC via compromised devices of 3/11 signers; revoke approvals on all chains
Ecosystem
Vitalik on Ethereum improvements being considered:
Proof of Stake (the Merge): single slot finality, 1 ETH staking, single secret leader election, faster transaction confirmations, 51% attack recovery, increasing quorum threshold for finality and quantum resistance
Scaling (the Surge): data availability sampling, data compression, generalized Plasma, maturing L2 proof systems, cross-L2 interoperability and scaling L1 execution
Propose Devcon satellite events
Job Listings
Sigma Prime is hiring Rust developers and security engineers. Remote roles!
Executive Director for Enterprise Ethereum Alliance
Nethermind: Sr Dev (Rust, Go) & Sr Contract Auditor (Rust)
Job listings: $600 for 4 issues (75 char limit). Pay using 3cities. Questions? abcoathup at-gmail
Onchain stats
Fees (via ultrasound.money):
Gas: 5.3 to 111.8 gwei, 16.4 gwei average; zero net issuance at 24.3 gwei
6k ETH net issuance this week
ETHUSD: $2,436 - $2,671, currently $2,641, all time high $4,878
ETHBTC: currently 0.039 (Flippening at ~0.164)
Notable at app layer
dGEN1 (mobile device): runs ethOS, ships 2025, pre-order via mint on Base
Towns: gated group chats using River & Base
Trump promoted World Liberty Financial token sale
General
FBI arrested alleged SEC Twitter SIM swapper
END OF SERVICE: plan to deprecate Week in Ethereum News
Editor: @abcoathup
Follow @WeekinEthNews for the most clicked links
Permalink: https://weekinethereumnews.com/week-in-ethereum-news-october-19-2024
Upcoming Dates of Note
(new/changes in bold)
Oct 25-27 – ETHSydney hackathon
Nov 12-15 – Devcon 7 - Southeast Asia (Bangkok)
Nov 15-17 – ETHGlobal Bangkok hackathon
Dec 6-8 – ETHIndia hackathon
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