Ethereum Weekly Digest, April 6, 2025
Eth News and Updates
Eth R&D protocol call (All Core Devs)
Consensus layer focused protocol call (ACDC #154):
Pectra
Mainnet target: May 7. Final client releases expected around April 21.
Fusaka
EIP-7892 (BPO): aims to allow dynamic or incremental scaling of blobs through a configurable schedule. It is favored for inclusion in Fusaka once the details around scheduling, configuration, and parameters are refined.
EIP-7917 (Proposer Lookahead): proposes a stable on-chain verifiable proposer set, beneficial for pre-confirmation protocols. It remains under further review to ensure it doesn't add undue complexity to Fusaka upgrade.
Protocol Research Call (#1)
Purpose: This monthly Protocol Research Call provides a dedicated, centralized venue for discussing Ethereum research ideas that were previously scattered across various platforms. It focuses on the "why" behind proposals, aiming to paint a holistic picture of the protocol roadmap rather than just implementation details. Ultimately, it seeks to accelerate the integration of promising concepts into Ethereum's core development by unearthing key challenges, converging on solutions, and guiding further asynchronous discussion.
Local building & private order flow: Local block construction struggles to compete against specialized builders who have access to higher-value private transaction flow. This raises centralization concerns and highlights the need for fallback or inclusion-list mechanisms to protect censorship resistance.
Decoupling throughput from local building: Some participants advocate scaling L1 execution by offloading block construction to powerful builders, as many home nodes cannot keep up. The discussion focused on ensuring liveness and censorship resistance if block building is largely externalized.
Single Slot Finality (SSF): Although faster finality offers better UX and stronger guarantees against mid-range reorganizations, shallow reorgs can still occur under SSF. Researchers debated its complexity and whether the benefits justify the engineering effort in the near term.
Validator set designs: A capped validator set could simplify faster slot times but might raise the entry threshold for small stakers. Orbit’s rotating committees allow large-scale participation, though it adds considerable consensus complexity and incentive design challenges.
Layer1
Consensus spec upgrade to v1.5.0-beta.4 (Zapdos): Update fork trigger sections
Fusaka
PeerDAS Breakout Room - Call #23
getblobs v2: is a top priority in the near term to support stable network throughput in devnet-6.
Client update: are steadily converging on getBlobs v2 and broader peer-to-peer testing. Prysm is refining database design and backfilling data columns, Lighthouse focuses on distributed blob publishing, Lodestar tackles validator custody, and Nimbus optimizes getBlobs v1 plus column-sync logic.
Devnet 0: Mostly stable with newly merged test scenarios addressing corner cases. Planned release soon for integration and final checks.
Devnet 1: Focus on TxCreate integration and container format changes, with partial client implementations ongoing. Remaining tasks include finalizing the creator contract and building consensus on pre-deployment approach.
Devnet 2: Introduces the Pay opcode, raising questions on static context handling and gas usage. Implementation depends on updated specifications and thorough testing.
Beam Chain (Call #3)
Post-Quantum Aggregation: Post-quantum signatures offer a promising way to handle aggregation at scale, but require higher compute power and careful design. A two-layer, permissionless approach to aggregation was proposed, allowing capable nodes to handle recursive aggregation for the entire network.
GossipSub Evolution: Multiple enhancements to GossipSub were presented, focusing on reducing redundant message dissemination. These approaches, such as new message control pairs and modularized "per-topic" optimization, aim to balance latency, bandwidth usage, and resilience.
Grid Topology: A grid-based structure could deliver messages in at most two hops by connecting validators in a deterministic row-and-column pattern. This design promises easy simulation and predictable message paths, but requires validators to publish stable, known addresses.
Set Reconciliation: uses compact algebraic protocols to synchronize missing items between peers, minimizing redundant data transfers. With small overhead and minimal round trips, it could significantly optimize the exchange of large numbers of short messages or transaction hashes.
Layer2
EVM Bytecode Compatibility Is Now Live on ZKsync Era
L2 Interop Working Group Call #6
EIP-7811: it solves the mismatch between a dApp's naive, on-chain-only view of a user's assets and the wallet's true cross-chain or swap-enabled capabilities. By letting wallets explicitly declare which assets they can effectively access (even if not directly visible on the current chain), 7811 helps dApps provide a more accurate and seamless user experience.
ERC-7786: Reviews how to incorporate robust gas abstraction and user-friendly payment flows into existing cross-chain messaging standards. Targets aligning final specifications with previously agreed-upon properties, pushing towards broader L2 adoption.
OIF: Centers on the tension of integrating resource locks and signature revocation into a production-ready implementation. Coordinates multiple teams (bridges, wallets, L2s) to finalize a unified approach for cross-chain “intent” operations.
Resource Locks (Escrow-Based Locking): Discusses locking mechanisms that let solvers or protocols finalize cross-chain transfers without waiting on full finality. Highlights the need for better revocation logic (e.g. ERC-7702 extensions) to ensure secure, account-based locks.
EIPs/ERCs
EIPs (Ethereum improvement proposals):
Client Release
Consensus Layer
teku v25.4.0: bug fixes and performance improvements for all Testnets
Execution Layer
Reth v1.3.7: fix for a critical bug
Geth v1.15.7: bug fix release
Ecosystem
EF’s Protocol Security Research team is working with Hypernative to improve onchain events monitoring and increase operational security
EthStaker is collecting data for The 2025 Staking Survey
Lens Chain Mainnet is live: uses ZKsync validiums for speed and Avail for secure data availability
Arbitrum Foundation's 2024 Transparency Report: 276 projects funded in 2024
Research & Paper
Vitalik’s roadmap for L2 focuses on enhancing security and finality through three key strategies: increasing blob capacity to meet data demands, implementing a hybrid proof system for instant finality, and creating a standardized proof aggregation layer to lower gas costs.
Ethereum's path to Single-Slot Finality (SSF) hinges on a tradeoff: the Orbit Path enables low-stake solo stakers via complex committee-based designs but demands lengthy R&D, while the Capped Validator Set Path simplifies development by focusing on high-stake validators for quicker SSF adoption, which risks centralization and lower censorship-resistance.
The latest version of the MEV-commit protocol integrates a ZK mechanism to strengthen the security of its commitment system, preventing malicious providers from generating fraudulent commitments.
Stats
Fees:
Gas: 0.3 to 6.5 gwei, 0.7 gwei average; zero net issuance at 20.1 gwei
17.6k ETH net issuance this week
ETHUSD: $1,758 – $1,921, currently $1,795, all time high $4,878
ETHBTC: currently 0.022 (Flippening at ~0.164)
L2 Total Value Locked: 15.74 M ETH, 3.3% in 7 days
ETH ETF: -26.91K ETH net inflow (March 31 – April 4)