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# System prepended metadata

title: CDAP Development Update 1

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# CDAP Development Update 1

This is my first update for the [Ethereum Core Developer Apprenticeship](https://github.com/ethereum-cdap/cohort-one) and marks the end of the first week of the program. Future updates will follow every two weeks.

I spent all of my time researching different areas of Ethereum that are actively being developed. Since I have been building on Ethereum at [work](https://github.com/valist-io/valist), I decided not to dive too deep into the basics.

The area of development that I found the most interesting is Stateless Ethereum. This is a set of upgrades that will enable lower power devices to take part in Ethereum validation (i.e. light clients).

Going down the rabbit hole I learned about:

- [Kate Commitments](https://hackmd.io/yqfI6OPlRZizv9yPaD-8IQ?view#Background) - Vector commitments  recently replaced by Verkle Tries
- [Verkle Tries](https://dankradfeist.de/ethereum/cryptography/2021/06/18/verkle-trie-for-eth1.html) - Vector commitment with constant sized proofs
- [Portal Network](https://github.com/ethereum/portal-network-specs) - Peer-to-peer network for sharing Ethereum state

From these topics the one that resonated with me the most is the Portal Network. It solves a number of usability problems with retrieving Ethereum state, and makes heavy use of peer-to-peer network protocols.

## What's next?

I've started work on a proposal to build a portal network using libp2p instead of devp2p. I will be sharing my proposal and getting feedback in the upcoming weeks. 

Hopefully I can convince some other developers to join me on this ambitious project. See you in two weeks for the next update.