--- 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 - 5 June 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 70 at [eth2.news](https://eth2.news/) ## Top picks A couple of great podcasts for you this week: - Danny Ryan on Epicenter, [Ethereum Foundation – An Eth2 Progress Update](https://epicenter.tv/episodes/393/), - and Vitalik's monumental three-hour appearance on the [Lex Fridman podcast](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW0QZmtbjvs). ## The Beacon Chain The Beacon Chain is over [six months old](https://twitter.com/etherchain_org/status/1399625222454718464) :birthday: Apart from a little wobble when [Prysm stopped producing blocks](https://hackmd.io/@benjaminion/wnie2_210424#-Newsflash-) for a couple of hours, it is hard to imagine how it could have gone any better. There have been a few more [slashings](https://beaconcha.in/validators/slashings) than I'd like, but the majority are accounted for by incidents with a single provider; the total number of slashing incidents is small overall. As far as we know, all slashings were due to misconfigurations by node operators (whether individuals or staking services), and no client or protocol bugs were involved. Remember that validators are slashed only for breaking the rules of the chain, never for downtime: if you follow basic good practice and advice, you won't get slashed. Over those six months, the validator queue has rarely been empty. We started the chain with 21,063 validators, and we now have 157,479 (plus 140 exited due to slashing). So, on average, we've been onboarding validators at a rate of around 735 a day for the entire period. This is not far off the maximum rate of 900 per day. The [Eth2 deposit contract](https://etherscan.io/address/0x00000000219ab540356cbb839cbe05303d7705fa) holds 5,324,034 Ether, worth $14B dollars today. This is an incredible vote of confidence in the technology, the teams, the implementations, and the future of Ethereum. I am humbled to be part of this thing. Here's [The Daily Gwei](https://thedailygwei.substack.com/p/6-months-of-the-beacon-chain-the)'s take on the anniversary. Omni Analytics has been exploring [graphical insights into the function and health of the network](https://crypto.omnianalytics.io/2021/05/14/tiering-and-dashboarding-eth-2-0-validator-behavior/). Lots of nice charts comparing validator behaviour on the Medalla testnet and on Mainnet, with a teaser for a network health dashboard. (They strangely seem to miss the connection between sections 3.7/3.8 and 3.9: the exits are forced as the result of the slashings.) ### Staking Want to stake on Windows? Well, Lighthouse is [joining the party](https://www.reddit.com/r/ethstaker/comments/nre9tz/how_to_compile_and_run_lighthouse_on_windows/) and the other clients already support it. If you do go down the Windows route, here are [some tips](https://www.reddit.com/r/ethstaker/comments/nqvkv4/tips_for_eth2_staking_on_windows_avoid_issues_and/) to keep your setup in good shape, whichever client you choose. ### Tooling There is a proposal for clients to support [standard validator API endpoints](https://hackmd.io/@dapplion/eth2-validator-api) in addition to the other [standard API endpoints](https://ethereum.github.io/eth2.0-APIs/). This would help provide common user interfaces between clients with the goal of making it easier to switch client and improve diversity of clients on the network. ## The Merge The Merge is the point at which Ethereum transitions from operating on Proof of Work to operating on the Proof of Stake beacon chain. While the Rayonism project demonstrated the overall feasibility of The Merge, it did not explore the actual cut-over from PoW to PoS itself. Mikhail recently posted a technical [design for the transition process](https://github.com/ethereum/eth2.0-specs/pull/2462). There's lots to be cautious about. Ahead of The Merge, existing miners' behaviour is likely to be maximally unpredictable, so all sorts of scenarios need to be considered in the planning. ## The Great Explainers Genuine scalability is not easy to achieve with blockchains. If it were, we'd have done it already. Vitalik explains why in [The Limits to Blockchain Scalability](https://vitalik.ca/general/2021/05/23/scaling.html). It's a very readable introduction to various challenges and possible solutions. Alex Stokes made a PEEP an EIP presentation on [Accounting reform in Altair](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdhHJa2SEwY). In the event, discussion ranged much more widely and we barely got to accounting reform, but we did cover plenty of good stuff on the way. Jeff Lau brought us a solid tweet-thread explaining [The Merge](https://twitter.com/_jefflau/status/1399598794451345411). Everything you ever [wanted to know about SSZ](https://www.ssz.dev/) but were afraid to ask. Learn about [Kate (KZG) commitments](https://hackmd.io/yqfI6OPlRZizv9yPaD-8IQ) and Verkle Tries. These are important cryptographic tools for moving towards stateless Ethereum and ensuring data availability in sharding. ## Media and Other Stuff James Beck interviewed my excellent colleagues Sajida Zouarhi (product manager of the Besu Eth1 client) and Mikhail Kalinin (responsible for the technical design of The Merge), and wrote it all up in a very nice article: [Charting The Path To Proof of Stake Ethereum](https://consensys.net/blog/blockchain-explained/charting-the-path-to-proof-of-stake-ethereum/). Here's the Tweet-thread [warm-up](https://twitter.com/JamesJohnBeck/status/1400552379066503168), but the full interview is well worth your time. NBC News wrote about [Proof of Stake](https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/cryptocurrency-goes-green-proof-stake-offer-solution-energy-concerns-rcna1030) with some juicy quotes from Danny Ryan. I particularly enjoyed, "It's a fundamental breakthrough for humanity, we can now do things that we could not do otherwise". Here's some more on Vitalik's [three hours](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW0QZmtbjvs) with Lex Fridman ([audio only](https://lexfridman.com/vitalik-buterin-2/) - the first eight minutes are ads). Some tasty tidbits: - "Craig Wright is a scammer... so sue me" ([0:57:39](https://youtu.be/XW0QZmtbjvs?t=3459) and [2:22:42](https://youtu.be/XW0QZmtbjvs?t=8562)) - "Polygon is a sidechain" ([1:20:40](https://youtu.be/XW0QZmtbjvs?t=4840) - so that's finally settled, then) - On timing of The Merge, "Early in 2022 is the most realistic" ([1:34:50](https://youtu.be/XW0QZmtbjvs?t=5690)) The [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW0QZmtbjvs) show notes index directly into the various topics if you don't want to hear it all. There's a good chunk of Eth2, proof of stake, and scaling stuff. Not quite in the same league, but definitely shorter, Christine and I are having some increasingly fruity conversations on Coindesk's [Mapping out Eth2.0 podcast](https://www.coindesk.com/podcasts/mapping-out-eth-2-0). On the [May 27 episode](https://www.coindesk.com/podcasts/mapping-out-eth-2-0/centralization-crisis-ethereum) we talked about handling security vulnerabilities in a decentralised ecosystem, and on [June 3](https://www.coindesk.com/podcasts/hard-problems-bram-cohen/elon-musk-bitcoin-ethereum-layer-2) I went off on one about the attempted green-washing of Bitcoin. Not my most coherent utterences, but fun anyway. Coindesk's Valid Points newsletters: [The Risks and Rewards of Sharding](https://www.coindesk.com/ethereum-2-0-risks-and-rewards-of-sharding), and [Why Staking on Eth 2.0 Is Becoming Lucrative for Exchanges](https://www.coindesk.com/staking-eth-2-0-lucrative-for-exchanges-web-3-hackathon). ## Research Miner/validator extractable value is becoming a big topic, both in current Ethereum and for post-Merge Ethereum. Here's an article raising concerns about the [impact of MEV on decentralisation](https://hackmd.io/@Izzy-/Eth2VevStaking) of the beacon chain. In short, the economics of MEV will put solo stakers at a disadvantage. I by no means see this as a given, for a couple of reasons. For one thing, this is an area under intensive active research (hence dropping it into this section). Initiatives like Flashbots are aiming to democratise MEV, and may well succeed. In fact, Vitalik published a post on this very topic just a day ago: [Proposer/block builder separation-friendly fee market designs](https://ethresear.ch/t/proposer-block-builder-separation-friendly-fee-market-designs/9725?u=benjaminion). The other reason is that, in years to come, the base chain will likely largely be utilised only for data availability for L2 solutions; MEV will move up a layer into rollups, and will no longer be a concern for validators. Georgios Konstantopoulos is worried about validators being unable to reclaim their stakes due to losing their withdrawal keys, and proposes a meachanism for [Simple Withdrawal Credentials Rotation](https://ethresear.ch/t/simple-withdrawal-credentials-rotation/9555?u=benjaminion). This is definitely an issue: the initial BLS withdrawal key mechanism we used was an unfamiliar workflow, with few standard tools, and I can well believe that stakers may inadvertantly lose access to their withdrawal private keys. Now that we have `0x01` credentials available, which use standard Ethereum accounts, it ought to be less of an issue for future stakers. Nonetheless, the proposal as-is is unlikely to be implemented: there's too much of an opportunity for "non-custodial" staking services to steal stakers' funds. But I'm sure that work will continue in this area. Protolambda has posted his take on the post-Merge [route to sharding](https://twitter.com/protolambda/status/1399436703669051394), with a summary of the interesting challenges ahead. Lots of work is happening [behind the scenes](https://twitter.com/protolambda/status/1399436720479870976). ## Regular Calls ### Implementers Call #65 took place on the 3rd of June. * [Agenda](https://github.com/ethereum/eth2.0-pm/issues/220) * [Video](https://youtu.be/cgH8OsCg9tY?t=96) * My [quick notes](https://hackmd.io/@benjaminion/HkCsML89u). This call was longer and more interactive than we are accustomed to. Three topics prompted discussion (not captured in great detail in my notes - I recommend checking the recording if they are of interest to you). First, whether to change the rewards structure for sync committees in the Altair spec. The current approach could lead to [significant variance](https://github.com/ethereum/eth2.0-specs/issues/2448) between the rewards gained by equally well-behaved validators. Changing this was basically a given, the main discussion was around which of two proposals to adopt: one [from Potuz](https://github.com/ethereum/eth2.0-specs/pull/2450), or one [from Vitalik](https://github.com/ethereum/eth2.0-specs/pull/2453). Both are strong, but Vitalik's version eventually won on points. Second, around whether to include Jacek's proposal to put a [historical block root accumulator](https://github.com/ethereum/eth2.0-specs/pull/2428) into the state, and whether this is best done in a single protocol upgrade, or across two. There is some reluctance to add more to Altair at this stage, but all are agreed that the basic idea is sound. In the end, release of the final Altair spec (Alpha 7) was pushed back to next week to allow for more discussion on this. Third, a guest appearance from Joe Clapis of Rocket Pool to propose [`0x02` withdrawal credentials](https://github.com/ethereum/eth2.0-specs/pull/2454) to help enforce the fair distribution of transaction rewards in staking pools post-Merge. A decision on this is not urgent, so it was more of an intro to the issue. ### The Merge Merge call #5 also took place on the 3rd of June, just ahead of the Implementers' call. * [Agenda](https://github.com/ethereum/pm/issues/331) * [Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j61FqoQwEHo) * [Notes](https://notes.ethereum.org/@protolambda/Hkg21v8qu) by Protolambda Includes discussion of The Merge [transition process](https://github.com/ethereum/eth2.0-specs/pull/2462), the API between consensus and execution clients, whether to store `ExecutionPayloadHeader` or full `ExecutionPayload` in the beacon state, and what to do with the `difficulty` opcode post-merge. ## Upcoming events - June 23rd, 1300 UTC: Ethereum Foundation [Eth2 team AMA](https://twitter.com/drakefjustin/status/1398375498342977544) on [/r/ethereum](https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/). ## In other news - Danny Ryan's [Finalized no. 26](https://blog.ethereum.org/2021/05/25/finalized-no-26/), A brief update on Altair staus, and progress with Rayonism and The Merge. - The Lodestar client from Chainsafe [lives](https://www.reddit.com/r/ethstaker/comments/nkwlbe/an_update_on_lodestar_our_typescript/)! :tada: The latest [development update](https://medium.com/chainsafe-systems/lodestars-recent-progress-metrics-and-other-oddities-49c6e646e421) is a great read - recommended. - [Prysmatic Labs](https://medium.com/prysmatic-labs/prysmatic-labs-ethereum-monthly-development-update-94c41df0a1f8)' monthly development update. * * * [![[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 🙌. 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