# EPF week 1 update: Hi there, my name is [Rahul](https://x.com/0xrguha). I am a permissionless participant , trying my best to provide value to the ethereum ecosystem. I have been into smart contract development and writing zk circuits using plonky2 and some core cryptography stuff. During the period of the [EPSG](**https://github.com/eth-protocol-fellows/protocol-studies**), I gathered some courage to contribute to RETH and the elixir client. Tho all of them were good first issues but grateful to Mario and I will be documenting my whole journey day to day on what i am studying and reading. This would be the week 1 update from me. ## 10th June, 2024 I needed to refresh my concepts on how the ethereum consensus works. So found this [cool video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gfNUVmX3Es) and [this article](https://ethos.dev/beacon-chain) and also revisted some general concepts on the [execution layer](https://epf.wiki/#/wiki/EL/el-specs), [consensus layer](https://epf.wiki/#/wiki/CL/overview). I am yet to understand why are we transitioning to SSZ serialisation from RLP Serialization? i wonder. ## 11th June 2024 I got sick today so i revisted the video on from week 10 Research [Consensus Upgrades](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-_2gAVFlw8&t=772s). I was quite interested in two topics in general , danksharding and lightclients. So I spent the rest of the day reading this [ethresearch article](https://ethresear.ch/t/from-4844-to-danksharding-a-path-to-scaling-ethereum-da/18046) to refresh the moving parts of PeerDas and this post on [light client](https://a16zcrypto.com/posts/article/an-introduction-to-light-clients/) and [consensus specs on light client](https://github.com/ethereum/consensus-specs/blob/dev/specs/altair/light-client/sync-protocol.md). But I am confused on what to focus on and how to streamline the learning process so that I can make some contributions. Ended the day with [EPF office hours by Tim Beiko](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L9UUCL7bzI). ## 12th June 2024 I was reading this [article on the roadmap of light clients](https://hackmd.io/@etan-status/electra-lc) and I am unsure of how much work is done in the clients so went and read the Lodestar docs on light clients and then scrolled through the light client issues on their github. I have some knowledge gaps about light clients that I need to fill before making contributions. I watched the [Peerdas breakout](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P86Dr9ABGeg) and the minutes to get updated on the current state of Peerdas and I need to go over it again. Reading through the week 1 update of other fellows i realised there are some pretty [good articles](https://www.adiasg.me/) to deep dive into the consensus algorithm of Ethereum. ## 13th June 2024 So i had this question the other day why SSZ is preferable over RLP serialization in EL clients (Cl clients already uses SSZ). Found this [article](https://etherworld.co/2023/01/25/why-ethereum-clients-prefer-ssz-over-rlp/#:~:text=SSZ%20Vs%20RLP,-Criteria&text=RLP%20is%20efficient%20under%20the,containers%20that%20are%20not%20needed) that explained exactly why. I am reading the Grandine codebase and the spec of PeerDas . Tuned into ACD call to know about what the clients teams are thinking about PeerDas the status of the devnet since last PeerDAS devnet actually completely forked out during interop.I got to know that Lighthouse and Prysm are confident with their implementation and Grandine will be tested with them. ## 14th June 2024 I tried running the Prysm client and enabling light client support. I went through the [Capella specs](https://github.com/ethereum/consensus-specs/tree/dev/specs/capella/light-client) and [Deneb specs for light clients](https://github.com/ethereum/consensus-specs/tree/dev/specs/deneb/light-client). I also went through Lodestar client to understand the spec better. Also read this paper on [Three Attacks on Proof-of-Stake Ethereum](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2110.10086). ## 15th June 2024 I am learning Go incase I narrow my focus to prysm. I found out about this concept of based preconfirmations and was reading through the [epf wiki page](https://epf.wiki/#/wiki/research/Preconfirmations/Preconfirmations) and this [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpJm0IO_foU&t=2030s) to learn more about it. Also tried a kurtosis interop for Peerdas with the Grandine Client and I am facing some errors, and to understand them is my task. ## 16th June 2024 I was reading from [the light client section](https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/nodes-and-clients/light-clients/) of ethereum.org and it has some pretty interesting articles and links near the end of the article. There is also a small discussion at the EPSG discord in the light client channel that is worth reading. I was learning about prometheus and grafana as I found out about some issues I can work on to increase my depth about LCs. # Next steps - Understand LCs in depth. - Try to understand and (and maybe solve some?) interop issues as adviced by the Grandine team. - Try to understand where client teams are trying to move forward with LCs and contribute there.