Week in Ethereum News, October 26, 2024
Eth News and Links
Eth R&D protocol call (All Core Devs)
Execution layer focused protocol call (ACDE #199):
Pectra upgrade:
Pectra-devnet-4: issues being debugged & fixed
EIP2537 BLS precompile: keeping subgroup checks, STARK projects unlikely to switch to using due to lack of infrastructure support
EIP7742 uncouple blob count between CL/EL: scheduled for inclusion in Pectra
Gas limit (set by validators): discussion on whether to increase validator defaults and what mechanism to use
Engine API revert error codes: proposal to standardize on Geth error codes
Pectra (Prague + Electra) upgrade
Weekly testing call #10: peerdas-devnet-3 still unfinalized, fusaka-devnet-0 ~1 week away
Amsterdam upgrade
Stateless implementers call #26: upcoming Circle SNARK weekly seminars, Verkle measurements from replaying ~200k historical blocks and gas cost spec discussion
Layer 1
EIP7732 ePBS:
ePBS breakout #12: support for all-in-one fork choice proposal, devnet proceeding as planned, consensus specs can then be updated with fork choice proposal
Xatu dataset adds execution layer data in Parquet format from genesis
Research
Anders Elowsson: practical endgame on issuance policy, proposes curves to temper growth or alternatively set a 0.5% issuance rate for now
Centralization watch: threatening the value of your ETH
🚨 Lido at 27.9%, still too close to 33.3% threshold
Client diversity (via clientdiversity.org):
Execution layer: Geth ~52% majority
Consensus layer: Prysm 37% & Lighthouse 33.3%
Any client bug over 33.3% could mean loss of finality
Better geographic diversity is optimal, particularly outside of North America & Europe
Client Releases
Execution layer:
Erigon v3.0.0-alpha5: faster time on tip of chain, less time needed to download blobs, fix for v3.0.0-alpha4 crashes; resync required
For stakers
Update consensus layer clients so the network bandwidth changes of IDONTWANT messages can be observed
Layer 2
Helios (light client): adds OP Stack support; demo syncing mainnet, OP Mainnet & Base
Arbitrum One time lock extended to 8 days (up from 3 days)
ApeChain (Arbitrum Orbit L3) live
Arbitrum Orbit fast withdrawals for AnyTrust chains: up to 15 minute frequency, trust assumption on fast withdrawals committee
L2 Standards EVM equivalence breakout (RollCall #8.1)
EIPs/Standards
EIPs (Ethereum improvement proposals):
ERCs (application layer):
Stuff for developers
Foundry forge-std v1.9.4: adds cheatcodes for gas snapshots, random bytes, mock calls, debug trace recording, remember keys & get wallets
Remix contract verification plugin: verify on Etherscan, Sourcify & Blockscout at the same time
PRBMath v4.1.0 (Solidity library): adds UD21x18 alias for uint128 & SD21x18 alias for int128
Etherscan API v2: multichain with single API key for all supported chains, beta
Coinbase OnchainKit Checkout (React component): accepts USDC payments
Safe multisig transaction hashes: Bash script to generate Safe transaction hashes to cross-check with Ledger; Safe hash preview: hosted UI with additional trust assumptions
Veritas: Circom circuit testing using Go
Security
Tapioca DAO $4.7M exploit via private key compromise starting with fake job offer on LinkedIn
DAO governance common vulnerabilities
Ecosystem
More Vitalik explainers on Ethereum roadmap:
Minimize staking centralization risks (the Scourge): fix block construction pipeline and staking economics
Easy block verification (the Verge): stateless verification (Verkle or STARKs) and validity proofs of EVM execution & consensus
Hackathon projects: ETHGlobal San Francisco finalists & ETHSofia
Enterprise
Stripe acquiring Bridge (stablecoin payments) for a reported $1.1B
Job Listings
Sigma Prime is hiring Rust developers and security engineers. Remote roles!
Executive Director for Enterprise Ethereum Alliance
Job listings: $600 for 4 issues (75 char limit). Pay using 3cities. Questions? abcoathup at-gmail
Onchain stats
Fees (via ultrasound.money):
Gas: 3.4 to 96 gwei, 11.3 gwei average; zero net issuance at 24.2 gwei
11k ETH net issuance this week
ETHUSD: $2,399 - $2,747, currently $2,440, all time high $4,878
ETHBTC: currently 0.037 (Flippening at ~0.164)
Notable at app layer
Kain Warwick: retrospective of Infinex patron sale rather than a VC seed round
Safe multichain deployment: deploy at same address, no gas fees on major L2s
Gitcoin Grants 22: open source software rounds on Arbitrum; mint attestations of donations
AD: Buy an NFT to tweet once as @evan_van_ness. Auction ends Monday morning, some restrictions apply
Regulation/business/tokens
Binance employee Tigran Gambaryan released from Nigeria
WSJ reports that Tether is under investigation by SDNY; CEO denies
General
Transak third party KYC vendor data breach via compromised employee credentials
Secp256k1-node vulnerability allows private key extraction over ECDH
END OF SERVICE: plan to deprecate Week in Ethereum News
Editor: @abcoathup
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Permalink: https://weekinethereumnews.com/week-in-ethereum-news-october-26-2024
Upcoming Dates of Note
(new/changes in bold)
Nov 12-15 – Devcon 7 - Southeast Asia (Bangkok)
Nov 15-17 – ETHGlobal Bangkok hackathon
Dec 6-8 – ETHIndia hackathon
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