Ethereum Weekly Digest, August 31, 2025
Eth News and Updates
Eth R&D protocol call (All Core Devs)
Execution layer focused protocol call (ACDE #219):
Fusaka
DevNet non‑finality recovery: DevNet‑3 remained non‑final for ~5 days with ~50–55% participation, exposing client sync/memory issues and a few EL bugs.
Timeline: Plan set to restore DevNet‑3 near 100%, re‑run non‑finality, then launch DevNet‑5; deployment tooling sped up to iterate quickly. Schedule to be prepared with a 30‑day window from first client releases to first testnet while re‑checking with rollups/infra; Holesky to be deprecated shortly after the Fusaka fork with a public notice.
60M gas plan: Raise to 60M gas only once every EL/CL has a release proven to handle it; no specific adoption threshold required. May ship 60M as default in upcoming testnet releases (and later Fusaka mainnet releases), avoiding Engine‑API changes and aligning CL/MEV‑Boost defaults.
Glamsterdam
Block access lists: Block‑access‑list work (EIP‑7928) moved to biweekly breakouts with all clients actively implementing. Targeting a first workable step as teams converge and share progress.
Repricing meta‑EIP tracker: Meta‑EIP proposed to catalog gas‑repricing proposals with versioned snapshots, strictly informational and not a governance gate. Intended to coordinate Devnet bundles and track per‑EIP status; feedback sought on format and version control.
Layer1
Consensus specs update to v1.6.0-alpha.6: introduce specs for block access lists
Rebase and Activation Plan: Rebased FOCIL spec onto Fulu; keep master on Fulu while a long‑running PR tracks a rebase onto the ePBS branch.
Client Implementation Status: Teku and Prysm include ePBS code, while Lodestar and Lighthouse do not, favoring continued Fulu‑based testing.
Testing, Metrics, Tooling: Preparing a thorough test‑case document and updating Beacon/Engine APIs; interop with an EL client using the new Engine APIs is next. Standing up Kurtosis dashboards and Docker images for CL/EL metrics; exploring post‑Gloas devnets once tooling supports Gloas genesis.
ePBS (EIP-7732) Breakout Room call #22
Beacon to Execution Shift: Move KZG commitments and execution requests from beacon‑block body to execution‑layer envelope; remove legacy fields despite breaking generalized indices.
Post‑state Proofing Gap: Two state transitions per slot under ePBS complicate EVM proofs because EIP‑4788 exposes only the beacon‑block root, not the post‑payload state. Defer any remedy (e.g., commit execution‑envelope root or track dual roots) until a concrete need appears to avoid scope creep.
Sealed Builder Bids: Keep builder API MEV‑Boost‑like, rename “execution payload header” to “execution payload bid,” and likely require proposer‑signed per‑builder requests to enable sealed auctions. Retain open P2P bid gossip in parallel; for self‑build set bid signature to zero so the validator requests a single beacon block, with the first DevNet focusing on self‑building only.
Block-level Access Lists (EIP-7928) Breakout #1
Include Reads Decision: Keep reads/state locations for now to enable parallel I/O and potential batch prefetch gains. Reassess after worst‑case benchmarks without reads; weigh utility against wire cost and complexity.
Parallel Execution Performance: Observed ~2.2–2.6× faster block processing in Geth over 10k‑block imports, with execution parallelized and state‑root calc handled concurrently. Noted execution spikes; worst‑case speedup expected to track core count (e.g., ~32× on 32 cores) pending broader benchmarks.
Testing and DevNet Readiness: Wired Python spec (EELS) through T8n into fixtures; re‑hashed and validated RLP‑encoded BAL, with invalid‑case scaffolding underway. Collected edge cases via markdown and Hive dashboard; DevNet targeted once engine‑API changes land across clients, with RLP favored over SSZ for simplicity and slightly smaller size.
STF scope and timeline: Finalize STF spec for DevNet‑0 by August 31, featuring chaining, 3SF‑mini finality, round‑robin proposers, no signatures, and simplified equal‑weight validators. Standardize client‑agnostic genesis via config (genesis_time, num_validators) and follow the schedule: Sep 5 genesis tooling + DevNet‑1 spec freeze, Sep 12 spec tests, Sep 19 interop readiness, Sep 26 DevNet‑0 interop, Oct 3 DevNet‑1 tooling.
Signature format and keys: Place signature verification outside STF to keep proving light; use empty/mock signatures in DevNet‑0, with real schemes added in DevNet‑1. Prefer flat byte vectors over structured containers for block signatures (fixed) and aggregated attestations (variable), and proceed with two PQ key types (attestation, block‑signing) while exact byte sizes and keystore/CLI details remain open.
SSZ hashing choice: Adopt SHA‑256 for SSZ in DevNet‑0, deferring Poseidon2 because its field‑element outputs need a clear 32‑byte encoding plan. Keep 32‑byte hash expectations to unblock clients and tests now, and revisit Poseidon‑based SSZ hashing in a later DevNet once proving/serialization implications are settled.
EIPs/ERCs
EIPs (Ethereum improvement proposals):
ERCs (application layer):
ERC-8010: Pre-delegated Signature Verification
Client Release
Execution Layer
Besu v25.8.0: Performance and Security updates
Ecosystem
Protocol Update 003 Improve UX Projects: Open Intents Framework, Ethereum Interoperability Layer, Interop standards, Fast L1 Confirmation Rule, Shorter L1 slots, Shorter L2 settlement
New Podcast 'From Whiteboard to Mainnet' by Columbia CDFT & EF Academic Secretariat: EP1. Optimal Dynamic Fees for Blockchain Resources
Chainlink and the United States Department of Commerce (DOC) bring U.S. government macroeconomic data onchain
Aave’s RWA Market Horizon Launches: Institutions or other qualified users borrow stablecoins against RWAs.
Research & Paper
Ethereum will scale blob data availability by shipping PeerDAS in Fusaka (nodes sample blobs) and gradually raising capacity—from ~6 to ~48 blobs/block—via Blob-Parameter-Only forks and networking optimizations.
The Native Rollups Book introduces “native rollups”: EVM rollups that use an EXECUTE precompile to run state transitions directly in Ethereum’s own EVM, avoiding custom proof systems. It targets today’s pain points—governance risk (bespoke upgrades after each L1 fork and imperfect exit windows) and bug risk (complex, fragile proofs)—by making rollups automatically inherit L1 forks/features and L1’s security and bug-fix process.
Stats
Fees:
Gas: 0.1 to 8.0 gwei, 0.5 gwei average; zero net issuance at 16.3 gwei
18.1k ETH net issuance this week
ETHUSD: $4,280 – $4,926, currently $4,466, all time high $4,946
ETH/BTC: currently 0.041 (Flippening at ~0.165)
L2 Total Value Locked: 9.76 M ETH, 1.67% in 7 days
ETH ETF: 235.90K ETH net inflow (Aug 25 – Aug 29)