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# System prepended metadata

title: Ignacio (jsign) - Update 1

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# Ignacio (jsign) - Update 1


# Reading
This week I dived into reading articles related to my main areas of interest.

- [RLP encoding](https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/data-structures-and-encoding/rlp/) (refresher)
- [Understanding Ethereum Smart Contract Storage](https://programtheblockchain.com/posts/2018/03/09/understanding-ethereum-smart-contract-storage/)
- Verkle Tries / Statelessness:
  - [Verkle Trie for eth1](https://dankradfeist.de/ethereum/2021/06/18/verkle-trie-for-eth1.html) by Dankrad
  - [Verkle Trees](https://vitalik.ca/general/2021/06/18/verkle.html) by Vitalik
  - [The verkle tree upgrade](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fL7hi8SZMs) by Guillaume (video)
  - [Verkle Tree Structure](https://blog.ethereum.org/2021/12/02/verkle-tree-structure) by Guillaume and Dankrad
  - [Why stateless](https://dankradfeist.de/ethereum/2021/02/14/why-stateless.html) by Dankrad
  - [IPAs](https://dankradfeist.de/ethereum/2021/07/27/inner-product-arguments.html) by Dankrad
  - [Statelessness & Verkle Trees](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7bEtX3Z57o) by Guillaume (video)
  - [Verkle tries for Ethereum state](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGJOQHzg3UQ) by Dankrad
- Sharding:
  - [Kate commitments](https://dankradfeist.de/ethereum/2020/06/16/kate-polynomial-commitments.html) by  Dankrad.
  - [Why Sharding is Great](https://vitalik.ca/general/2021/04/07/sharding.html) by Vitalik
  - [Data availability checks](https://dankradfeist.de/ethereum/2019/12/20/data-availability-checks.html) by Dankrad

# Infra

I ran synced a local node to the Goerli network using Geth+Lighthouse.
I thought this would be useful if I end up exploring doing code changes in geth around my topics of interests.
  

# Exploring interests

My main interests revolve around engineering and research around sharding and verkle tries.

I'm getting in touch with mentors related to these areas of interests to get their input.

From my side, my self-directed plan now is:
- Diving into the [go-verkle](https://github.com/gballet/go-verkle) repository, to understand more in detail how the oficial Go implementation works. Also indirectly touch [go-ipa](https://github.com/crate-crypto/go-ipa) since it's used for cryptographic operations.
- Looking for any 'in progress' branches around integrating `go-verkle` in `geth`
- Analyze areas of improvements to share later with mentors.

I'll probably know better after the first calls with mentors.
