--- tags: newineth2 description: The latest update on Ethereum 2.0 development image: https://benjaminion.xyz/f/favicon-96x96.png --- <style> a {text-decoration: underline;} a {color: #0000ee;} a:visited {color: #551a8b;} </style> # What's New in Eth2 - 22 May 2021 ![My avatar](https://benjaminion.xyz/f/ms-icon-144x144.png =32x32) Ben Edgington (Eth2 at [ConsenSys](https://consensys.net/) — all views expressed are my own) Edition 69 at [eth2.news](https://eth2.news/) ## Top picks Happy [Bitcoin Pizza Day](https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/cryptocurrency/bitcoin-pizza-day-2021-some-interesting-facts-about-this-special-cryptocurrency-day-6924731.html), y'all! :pizza: Do you sometimes read something so good that you wish you had written it yourself? This is one of those articles: [Addressing common criticisms about Ethereum](https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/najp2c/addressing_common_criticisms_about_ethereum/). It's not about Eth2 things specifically, but remains a top pick simply because everyone should read this. ## The Beacon Chain There continue to be occasional one-off [slashing events ](https://beaconcha.in/validators/slashings) - two more in the last two weeks. These are hard to explain. It's possible that people trying to migrate to different clients have botched the process somehow. Please get in touch if this is you, we want to learn lessons. In total, fewer than one in one-thousand validators have been slashed since genesis, and the vast majority of those were run by a single staking service. ### Staking Martin Köppelmann (quoting [SparkPool](https://twitter.com/sparkpool_eth/status/1395662646951641090)) started a conversation about [centralisation of staking](https://twitter.com/koeppelmann/status/1395665689139101696). As ever, things are more nuanced than they appear at first sight. I am hopeful that both the launch of Rocket Pool and the implementation of validator withdrawals will, in due course, help to ease the pressures tending to centralise staking among certain providers. Elias Simos of Bison Trails has created a dashboard of [Eth2 Liquid Staking](https://duneanalytics.com/eliasimos/Eth2-Liquid-Staking), explained [here](https://twitter.com/eliasimos/status/1393143355731742721). These are staking pools that accept amounts of Ether smaller than 32, and offer some kind of staking derivative token that you can use in DeFi protocols (hence "liquid"). Lido dominates (here's their latest [development update](https://blog.lido.fi/lido-development-update-four-months-of-lido/)). ### Altair We revisited planning for the Altair update on the recent [devs' call](#PoS-Implementers). No big changes since last time: first half of June for some joint testnets and finalising the specification; upgrading the existing testnets in July. [Version `alpha.6`](https://github.com/ethereum/eth2.0-specs/releases/tag/v1.1.0-alpha.6) of the Altair specification is just out (code name "Protostellar Evolution"). The main update is a reorganisation of configuration constants to allow for testnets with different parameters to be created more easily, among [other things](https://github.com/ethereum/eth2.0-specs/pull/2390). Alpha 6 also adds a [`ResourceUnavailable` response](https://github.com/ethereum/eth2.0-specs/pull/2430) on the networking layer. This can be used by clients that are syncing to indicate that they do not have blocks that other nodes might expect them to have. The client receiving this response can decide whether it qualifies as bad behaviour and disconnect the sender, or cut them some slack until they finish syncing. The plan is for Alpha 6 to remain stable now as a basis for the initial multi-client testnets. Vitalik has created an [Annotated Specification for Altair](https://github.com/ethereum/annotated-spec/blob/master/altair/beacon-chain.md). Vitalik is more productive than I am. ### Rayonism The [Rayonism](https://rayonism.io/) Ethereum proof of stake hackathon project closed last week. Over the course of the four weeks, two merged testnets were stood up: Steklo, which ran for a day, and Nocturne, which ran for a week. [Nocturne](https://twitter.com/protolambda/status/1392448050191347716) got off to [a terrific start](https://twitter.com/etherchain_org/status/1392458481983234050) and [got better](https://twitter.com/protolambda/status/1392503445714767883) from there. Once again, twelve combinations of Eth1/execution client and Eth2/consensus client were involved, and as far as I can tell it ran pretty smoothly throughout the week. Some teething issues emerged around voting on Eth1 blocks and transaction handling, but nothing fundamental that would derail The Merge. Despite demonstrating a little less than its original ambition&mdash;sharding, for example, wasn't attempted&mdash;Rayonism was a huge success and bodes extremely well for The Merge. Massive respect to all those participating! Protolambda in particular for his impressively untiring coordination :raised_hands: As Proto [mentions](https://twitter.com/protolambda/status/1392448057934028807), although the hackathon is over, it is not the end of Rayonism. In due course the stretch goals will be tackled such as validator withdrawals and sharding. Other things that need to be implemented and tested are new state sync protocols, and the transition process from proof of work to proof of stake itself. ### The Merge Since Rayonism went well, the attention of teams on each side of The Merge will be focused for a while on non-merge things. Namely, delivering the London (EIP-1559) and Altair upgrades respectively. The main topic of discussion around The Merge in recent days has been timing, as ever. Rayonism demonstrated that the whole thing is technically feasible. But there remains a lot to do, possibly more on the Eth1/execution client side. While Eth2/consensus client devs have largely signalled a desire to get the initial Merge completed this year, at least one Eth1/execution client team is uncomfortable committing to that. My own view at this point is that The Merge is more likely to happen in Q1/2022 than this year. Other views are available: "Ethereum is About Six Months Away from Proof-of-Stake", says Preston Van Loon [in The Defiant](https://newsletter.thedefiant.io/p/ethereum-is-about-six-months-away-4b0). I warned about the culture shock of Eth2 devs running into Eth1 governance [a little while back](https://hackmd.io/@benjaminion/eth2_news/https%3A%2F%2Fhackmd.io%2F%40benjaminion%2Fwnie2_210313#fnref1) (with accompanying video). What we can say for sure is that (a) there is a strong desire among all Ethereum core devs to get The Merge done as soon as possible, and (b) it will be ready when it's ready; we will not put the network at risk by rushing this. You can follow the discussion yourself on the [`#allcoredevs`](https://discord.gg/6hGwGYn3EU) Discord channel. ### Post Merge The majority view is to keep The Merge as simple as possible so as to be able to deliver it as soon as possible. This means excluding, for now, the stake withdrawal mechanism, with that to be delivered a few months later. Nonetheless, Dmitry Shmatko of ConsenSys TX/RX team has been working on a [design and specification for withdrawals](https://hackmd.io/@zilm/withdrawal-spec), including partial withdrawals of staking rewards only. ## The Great Explainers Carl Beekhuizen estimates Ethereum's [power consumption post-Merge](https://blog.ethereum.org/2021/05/18/country-power-no-more/), and finds it to be 99.95% lower than Ethereum's power consumption under proof of work. To be clear, that's two thousand times more energy efficient. And with better security properties (`@jack` is simply [wrong](https://twitter.com/jack/status/1395455356382351362) on this one). He includes some nice comparisons. Coogan Brennan put together a nice step-by-step explainer on how to use [Teku's checkpoint sync](https://consensys.net/blog/teku/teku-and-infura-team-up-to-make-the-fastest-ethereum-2-0-client-sync/) feature with Infura to get up and running almost instantly. Infura is optional&mdash;I used this feature yesterday with a checkpoint provided by another Teku client&mdash;but it is super-convenient. Here's a [staking guide in Japanese](https://www.reddit.com/r/ethstaker/comments/n630ih/japanese_staking_guide/) (link to [the guide itself](https://gure-it-memo.com/eth-staking/)). I'd love to review it properly, でも私の日本語はひどいです. Setting up a validator at home [without a monitor](https://vedantsopinions.medium.com/eth2-node-at-home-without-a-monitor-12ae3ee861fb) by Vedant Agarwala. This is very similar to my own setup, except substitute Teku for Lighthouse. A couple of techy hacks found on [/r/ethstaker](https://www.reddit.com/r/ethstaker) that home stakers might find useful: - An opiniated solution to [improve time sync on Windows 10](https://www.reddit.com/r/ethstaker/comments/nfca22/an_opiniated_solution_to_improve_time_sync_on/), and - [Reducing linux swapiness](https://www.reddit.com/r/ethstaker/comments/ndnwka/reducing_linux_swapiness_to_10_from_default_of_60/) ## Media and Stuff Raul and Preston from the Prysm team on the [Go Time](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXgcPKhQy6w) podcast ("discussions from around the Go community"). Coindesk's Mapping Out Eth2 podcasts from [May 13th](https://www.coindesk.com/podcasts/mapping-out-eth-2-0/validating-eth-cloud-computing) and [May 20th](https://www.coindesk.com/podcasts/mapping-out-eth-2-0/ethereum-governance-process). I couldn't make the 20th, so Tim Beiko came on as a special guest and talked all things EIP-1559 and Ethereum governance among others - recommended! ## Research On [ethresear.ch](https://ethresear.ch/): - Georgios Konstantopoulos proposes [Simple Withdrawal Credentials Rotation](https://ethresear.ch/t/simple-withdrawal-credentials-rotation/9555?u=benjaminion). This would allow stakers who have lost their withdrawal keys to replace them. It is controversial, however, so read the comments to get a view of the trade-offs. - One year on from Vitalik's call for an [ideal vector commitment](https://ethresear.ch/t/open-problem-ideal-vector-commitment/7421?u=benjaminion) scheme, a proposal for [Hyperproofs](https://ethresear.ch/t/open-problem-ideal-vector-commitment/7421/28?u=benjaminion) (link to the [paper](https://eprint.iacr.org/2021/599)) - [Practical Smart Contract Sharding](https://ethresear.ch/t/practical-smart-contract-sharding-with-ownership-and-commutativity-analysis/9538?u=benjaminion) ## Regular Calls ### PoS Implementers Formerly known as the Eth2 Implementers' Call, The PoS Implementers' Call #64 took place on the 20th of May. * [Agenda](https://github.com/ethereum/eth2.0-pm/issues/218) * [Video](https://youtu.be/A1L7wLYAqnM?t=151) * My [quick notes](https://hackmd.io/@benjaminion/r1-aSk4tu), and in [Tweet form](https://twitter.com/ralexstokes/status/1395418899466752002) from Alex Stokes. Fairly brief and tight as usual. Mainly status updates and planning around the Altair upgrade. ### Merge Implementers Merge Implementers' Call #4 took place on the 13th of May. - [Agenda](https://github.com/ethereum/pm/issues/316) - [Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzjhLPtvTMQ) - [Transcription](https://github.com/ethereum/pm/blob/master/Merge/Meeting%2004.md) You'll enjoy this one if 45 minutes debating the merits of JSON RPC vs REST APIs is your thing. Endless discussions around APIs are a [time-honoured tradition](https://github.com/ethereum/eth2.0-specs/issues/1012#issuecomment-489660765) among core devs. This and previous Merge calls took place in the off-week between PoS Implementers' Calls. For the sake of reducing sleep disruption for those in incompatible time zones, we agreed to move these calls to just ahead of the PoS call, which involves many of the same people. It'll be a bit of a marathon, but makes sense, and one day we'll probably end up merging these calls in any case. So the next Merge call will be on the 3rd of June. ## In other news - Fancy becoming an Ethereum Core Developer? First watch [this](https://twitter.com/josephdelong/status/1235979765879844864) (sound up!) then check out the Ethereum Foundation's [Core Developer Apprenticeship Program](https://blog.ethereum.org/2021/05/13/core-dev-apprenticeship/). - Alternatively, we're [hiring](https://consensys.net/open-roles/3040114/) in the Teku team, as well as for protocol engineers [more generally](https://consensys.net/open-roles/?discipline=41276)! - A quick video demo from Teku on [progress towards Altair](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmz6yJ2mL3s) (7 mins). - Client team updates from [Lighthouse](https://lighthouse.sigmaprime.io/update-36.html) and [Nimbus](https://twitter.com/ethnimbus/status/1395035682947612674). - The [Lighthouse Research Report](https://d24n.org/lighthouse-research-report/) resulting from work by the Sigma Prime team funded by the [Decentralization Foundation](https://d24n.org/). Direct link to [the report](https://drive.google.com/file/d/12flM_E_A3DldbOUe8EYEN6Bg2bi4Yl6w/view). ## And finally... I saw [this Tweet](https://twitter.com/zooko/status/996120229792092165) from Zooko three years ago and laughed then, and I laughed seeing it again last week: > Rare footage of a cryptocurrency switching from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake. Yep - this is what we are doing! * * * [![[Twitter]](https://benjaminion.xyz/newineth2/img/twitter.svg =40x40)](https://twitter.com/benjaminion_xyz) Follow me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/benjaminion_xyz) to hear when the next edition is out 🙌. [![[RSS]](https://benjaminion.xyz/newineth2/img/rss.svg =32x32)](https://benjaminion.xyz/newineth2/rss_feed.xml) We also have an [RSS feed](https://benjaminion.xyz/newineth2/rss_feed.xml). [Advertising](https://hackmd.io/@benjaminion/eth2_news/https%3A%2F%2Fhackmd.io%2F%40benjaminion%2Fadvertising) on this newsletter. 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