HackMD
EPF Dev Update #1
tl;dr
- Went through the suggested reading.
- Did some initial research on the projects suggested by mentors.
Suggested reading
I started by reading the suggested material shared in the repository. I was happy to realize that I already knew most of the things they discussed. This gave me the confidence to begin exploring the projects proposed by the mentors.
Project ideas
I created Notes on EPF project ideas to document my learnings about the various projects.
Taking the time to research each proposed project provided valuable insights into the current areas of focus in core development. It also helped me understand the progress of different aspects, such as their research stage or proximity to implementation.
One interesting observation is how each upcoming upgrade mentioned in ethereum.org's roadmap page seems to have a corresponding project. Here's a rough breakdown:
| Upgrade | Project |
|---|---|
| Danksharding | Separate blobs from payload |
| Staking withdrawals | Already live |
| Single slot finality | … |
| Proposer-builder separation | ePBS design and prototyping |
| Secret leader election | SnSLE Implementations |
| Account abstraction | Optimism sequencer support for ERC 4337 bundlers |
| Verkle trees | Nimbus (one of the ideas) |
| Statelessness | Nimbus (one of the ideas) and Portal Network (?) |
Next steps
- Do some research on each upgrade.
- Keep an eye on Ethcc talks.
Research on individual upgrades
Before I make a decision on which project to work on, I want to dig deeper into each upgrade mentioned earlier. I'll spend some time exploring the technical details and understanding their significance.
Right now, I find ePBS particularly interesting. It offers a good balance between conducting research and implementing practical code during the program. So, I'll give it some extra attention.
There's another upgrade that caught my attention, even though it doesn't seem to be getting as much focus as the others. It's called Single slot finality. I have some experience with finality from my involvement in a Lighthouse pull request and an article I wrote on Mirror (link). I think it's worth looking into this upgrade more closely.
Over the next week, my plan is to research all the upgrades, with a special emphasis on ePBS and Single slot finality. Hopefully, by the end of next week, I'll have a better idea of which project I'm most interested in diving deep into during phase 2.
Ethcc talks
Since Ethcc is happening right now, it would be great to stay up to date with the talks related to the core protocol. I'll make sure to keep an eye out for those talks as they are uploaded to YouTube. It's always valuable to learn about the latest developments and insights shared at such events.
