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Purr-suit of Ethereum 🐾 #4

Your Weekly Dose of Blockchain Updates and Meows!

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The Ethereum ecosystem continues to push forward with major protocol upgrades, client testing, and ecosystem-wide discussions. This week's update covers the latest Pectra (Prague + Electra) upgrade developments, including security updates, testnet timelines, and system contract audits. Additionally, we dive into the latest discussions from All Core Devs, EVMMAX Implementers, and EIP Editing Office Hours, alongside new insights on validator hardware requirements, pre-confirmation mechanisms, and public goods funding initiatives and more updates since the last newsletter. If you’re tracking Ethereum’s Protocol meetings, this edition is packed with critical updates!

TL;DR

  • 🚨 Urgent Geth Update – Users must update to v1.14.13 to patch security vulnerabilities.
  • 🏗️ Pectra Upgrade – Devnet-6 is progressing; testnet forks for Holesky and Sepolia could happen by Feb 6, with client releases expected by Feb 10.
  • 🔬 System Contract Audits – Security reviews of EIPs 2935, 7002, and 7251 reveal concerns around fee updates.
  • 🏎️ EVMMAX Testing – Poseidon hash tests show a 10x efficiency gain using EVM Max over Solidity, with more benchmarking on the way.
  • ⚙️ Validator Hardware Debates – No final agreement yet on bandwidth requirements for Ethereum validators; discussions continue in the Ethereum R&D Discord.
  • 🤖 New ACD Bot Coming – A bot for recordings, calendar events, and notes will be presented in the next All Core Devs call.
  • 📜 EIP Editing Milestone – The 50th EIP Editing Office Hour marked a shift to dedicated EIP-only sessions to speed up proposal reviews.
  • 🏛️ Public Goods Funding – Octant Epoch 7 is open for climate-focused projects, and Gitcoin Grants 23 is set for March with a revamped funding strategy.

Pectra (Prague+Electra) Upgrade

All Core Devs - Execution (ACDE) #204 (January 30, 2025)

  • Urgent Security Update: Geth users should update their nodes immediately to apply the latest security release.
  • Pectra Devnet-6 & Timelines: Client teams should share devnet-6 ready branches. If stable by Feb 6, testnet fork slots for Holesky and Sepolia will be selected, with client releases expected by Feb 10.
  • Mainnet Fork Slot Consideration: The mainnet fork slot will be chosen only after Holesky forks successfully, likely around Feb 20, to avoid misleading expectations.
  • System Contract Audits Completed: Audits for EIPs 2935, 7002, and 7251 were conducted by multiple firms, revealing concerns about the fee update mechanism.
  • Fusaka Fork Planning: The first Fusaka devnet should only include EOF and PeerDAS, with further EIPs considered once stable. No additional decisions were made beyond this scope and that allowed teams to share their perspectives on the Pectra Retrospective thread.
  • Node Hardware & Bandwidth Discussions: Validator bandwidth requirements sparked debate, with no final agreement. The conversation continues on the R&D Discord.
  • Upcoming ACD Bot Presentation: A new bot to automate recordings, calendar events, and notes for AllCoreDevs will be presented in the next call.
  • Recording, Podcast version, Tim Beiko's FEM Notes, Nixo's Tweet Thread, YashKamal Chaturvedi's Notes, Christine's notes

Client testing call #22 (January 27, 2025)

Breakout & Implementers’ Meeting

EIP-7732 breakout room #15 (January 31, 2025)

  • Client Implementation Updates: Progress was reported on running Teku locally with ongoing issue fixes. Plans were discussed to prioritize gossip syncing, and ensures clients are ready for devnet testing.
  • Beacon API & Execution Payloads: A new API endpoint was proposed to fetch execution payloads independently. Discussions also covered adding event stream topics to notify toolings when a new payload is received.
  • Pre-Confirmations & Potential Challenges: The impact of Epbs on pre-confirmation mechanisms was debated, particularly concerns over a brief period where only one entity holds key information. Further evaluation is needed to assess whether this introduces centralization risks.
  • Slot Auction Research & Challenges: Various slot auction mechanisms were discussed, including potential execution ticket designs. However, major challenges remain in implementing fork choice rules, slashing conditions, and preventing collusion.
  • Action Items for Next Meeting:
    • Implement new API endpoints for execution payload requests.
    • Continue improving client implementations and achieve a two-client Kurtosis run.
    • Engage with pre-confirmation teams to evaluate potential blockers.
    • Collaborate with researchers to further assess the impact of the identified "blackout period" on centralization risks.
  • Next Steps: The team aims to finalize API updates, test implementations, and assess the viability of different approaches for pre-confirmations and execution tickets while focusing on safe, incremental improvements.
  • Recording, Terence's notes

EVMMAX Implementers Call 2 (January 30, 2025)

  • Client Updates:
    • EthereumJS team completed most of the JavaScript arithmetic library.
    • Work on vectorized and non-vectorized implementations continues, with comparisons planned.
  • Poseidon Hash Implementation:
    • Initial tests show a 10x efficiency improvement using EVM Max compared to Solidity.
    • Future work includes validating gas cost reductions and potential wall clock time improvements.
  • Vectorized vs Non-Vectorized Execution:
    • Ongoing discussion about whether vectorized operations should be the default.
    • Need to determine end-user requirements, such as elliptic curves vs. STARKs.
  • SIMD & Hardware Compatibility:
    • AVX2 (256-bit) is widely available, while AVX-512 has limited support.
    • Investigating impact on smaller fields where SIMD benefits could be more pronounced.
  • Tooling & Testing Pipeline:
    • A front-end tool is needed for easier implementation testing.
    • Options include direct bytecode generation or adding support to Solidity/Ule.
  • Action Items:
    • Confirm EVM Max gas numbers and benchmark wall clock performance.
    • Investigate SIMD comparisons using AVX2 with Poseidon hashing.
    • Develop a tool for end-to-end testing of EVM Max implementations.
  • Next Steps:
    • Compare Solidity-based Poseidon with EVM Max implementations.
    • Refine vectorized and non-vectorized benchmarks to guide further decisions.
    • Plan for the next meeting in one month to review progress.
  • Notes & Recording

L2 Interop Working Group - Call #2 (January 29, 2025)

FOCIL Breakout Room #3 (January 28, 2025)

Portal Implementers Call #42 (January 27, 2025)

eth_simulate Implementers' Meeting

EIPs Update

EIP Editing Office Hour Meeting #50 (January 28, 2025)

  • Milestone & New Editing Sessions:
    • Celebrating the 50th EIP Editing Office Hour and over two years of contributions by Sam Wilson.
    • Introduction of a dedicated EIP-only editing session led by Gajendra Singh to address backlog.
  • Reviewing Open Pull Requests:
    • Addressing EIPs ready for status updates (e.g., moving drafts to review).
    • Noting delays due to pending author responses, especially for active EIPs related to upcoming hard forks.
    • Suggesting authors raise PR concerns in All Core Devs (ACD) calls for quicker resolutions.
  • Handling Draft EIPs & New Submissions:
    • Reviewed new draft EIPs for correctness and formatting.
    • Discussed the importance of including benchmarking data and rationale for proposals with technical specifications.
    • Authors encouraged to use relative URLs for links and provide clear justification for hardware requirements.
  • EIP Status & Update Policies:
    • Discussion on best practices for versioning frequently updated EIPs (e.g., hardware recommendations per hard fork).
    • Agreement on linking each update to a specific fork rather than using "Living" status.
  • Process Improvements & Next Steps:
    • Encouraging active discussion in EIP's Magician forums for technical clarifications.
    • Proposal to allocate EIP numbers even for unmerged drafts unless abuse is detected.
    • Next EIP+ERC editing session scheduled for next Tuesday at 16:00 UTC.
  • Notes, Recording

PEEPanEIP

EIPsInsight

Call For Input (Open)

Upcoming Protocol Calls

Date & Time (UTC) Event
Monday Feb 3, 2025 at 12:00 UTC eth_simulate Implementers' Meeting
Monday Feb 3, 2025 at 14:00 UTC Pectra Interop Testing Call
Monday Feb 3, 2025 at 15:00 UTC RPC Standards Call #0
Monday Feb 3, 2025 at 16:30 UTC Portal Network Implementation
Tuesday Feb 4, 2025 at 10:00 UTC PeerDAS Breakout Room #16
Tuesday Feb 4, 2025 at 14:30 UTC PEEPanEIP-7805: Fork-choice enforced Inclusion Lists (FOCIL) with Thomas Thiery & Julian Ma
Tuesday Feb 4, 2025 at 16:00 UTC EIP Editing Office Hour Meeting 51
Wednesday Feb 5, 2025 at 14:00 UTC RollCall #9.1 Breakout - L2 Execution Common Core: V1 Scope
Wednesday Feb 5, 2025 at 15:00 UTC EOF Implementers Call #66
Thursday Feb 6, 2025 at 14:00 UTC All Core Dev Consensus #150
Friday Feb 7, 2025 at 14:00 UTC PEEPanEIP-7706: Separate gas type for calldata with Vitalik Buterin

Public Goods Funding

Octant Epoch 7 (Jan 30 – Feb 13, 2025)

Dedicated to "Climate Round", applications are OPEN for the Octant Epoch 7. If your project aligns with these areas and has been around for at least a year, the team wants to hear from you!

Deep Funding (Ongoing)

Backed by Vitalik Buterin, Deep funding is launched to support different projects based on dependency or ‘deep’ graph that shows the relative value of open source contributions in a network and deep learning.

In Deep Funding, most of the work gets done by a public market of allocators, that suggest proposed weights of edges in a graph. Using AI for allocations is encouraged.

Timeline

  • December 12th, 2024: Data on 40,000 Ethereum dependencies for building your model
  • Jan 20th, 2025: Sample spot check data by jury members to train your model
  • Jan 20th, 2025:Deadline for “early bird” prizes for open source model submissions. At least half of the open source model submission prize pool will be reserved for early bird submissions.
  • Feb 20th, 2025: Submit your model
  • Feb 27th, 2025: Results

Gitcoin Grant 23 (Upcoming in March 2025)

GG23 is kicking off at the end of March, and big changes are coming. The team shared Gitcoin Grants 2025 Strategy in a recent blogpost and the team intends to moving into a multi-mechanism future, allowing us to ensure a fairer funding distribution, supporting builders at every stage of growth.

Community thoughts on Public Goods Funding

There are a lot of differnt thoughts on "Public Goods". Last week Dan Robinson shared his thoughts on what he considers as "Public Goods". Vitalik Buterin responded

careful, "infra" is itself one of those words with challenging connotations 😀
I'd say "funding for pure open source"

Pooja Ranjan thinks the Ethereum Cat Herders is one of the popular public goods projects in the Ethereum ecosystem as "Public Goods" can be many things including essential coordination funding, fuel for Ethereum’s progress, an investment in Ethereum’s future and more.

Let us know your thoughts on Public Goods funding. Tag your top 5 favorite projects and us in your response Tweet :)

Events

Upcoming Events

Community Resources

Share your projects with us

Have updates about your project or client? Share them with us at team@ethcatherders.com by Friday (end of day EST) to be added in the next edition of the newsletter scheduled for release on the following Monday.

Stay Curious, Stay Connected and Keep Purring 🐾

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