Ethereum Weekly Digest, July 13, 2025
Eth News and Updates
Eth R&D protocol call (All Core Devs)
Consensus layer focused protocol call (ACDC #160):
Default Gas Limit: All consensus‑layer clients will ship a 45 M gas‑limit default to match execution‑layer guidance, with releases expected this month.
Fusaka DevNet 3: Launch is pencilled in for 21‑22 July. DevNet 2 bug‑fixing continues until mid‑July, after which DevNet 3 should become the “spec‑freeze” network.
Blob API Revision: Developers approved reverting v2 blobs to “all‑or‑nothing” and introducing v3 with mandatory partial responses—easy for ELs to implement now, paving the way for later cell‑level optimisations. Agreement was that shipping this inside Fusaka avoids another coordination round before Glamsterdam.
Glamsterdam Headliner Choice: Candidates include ePBS (7732), six‑second slots (7782), and FOCIL (7805); “available‑attestation” was informally ruled out. The decision process is deferred until after DevNet 3 is healthy, giving teams time to gather wider ecosystem feedback before a two‑call discussion‑and‑decision cycle.
Layer1
Ethproofs Call #3 | gigagas L1
Open‑source GPU Provers: Unveiled new GPU provers, with Pico already ~20× faster than its CPU version and aiming for multi‑GPU real‑time proofs by August. Risc‑Zero, Zisk and Airbender likewise committed to Apache/MIT releases, solidifying an open hardware‑friendly ecosystem.
EF ZKEVM Roadmap: The newly formed seven‑person EF ZKEVM team laid out a “≤10 kW, <10 s, 128‑bit” baseline for provers and will fund on‑prem clusters to hit those numbers. Blog‑post guidance and a benchmark pipeline (CGV) give clear targets for every ZKVM to ship mainnet‑grade proofs by Devconnect 2025.
EVM Resource Pricing Breakout #5
MODEXP Repricing: Benchmark data show MODEXP is the dominant throughput bottleneck; unless clients (notably Geth & Erigon) triple performance, its gas cost must rise sharply. A draft PR will be opened to triple MODEXP pricing, while clients attempt parallel optimizations.
Opcode Pricing Alignment: A draft EIP reduces gas for many compute opcodes and precompiles. Initial measurements confirm BLS12‑381 precompile costs are already accurate, with only minor tweaks needed.
Glamsterdam Planning: Roughly two months remain to finalize any pricing‑related EIPs for inclusion in the fork, after which only parameter tuning is feasible. The group agreed to prioritize compute harmonization and MODEXP changes first, while scoping multi‑dimensional gas metering and L2‑friendly configurable pricing for later evaluation.
Layer2
L2 Interop Working Group Call #11
Privacy Focused Wallet: A new experimental wallet will ship an SDK that standardise stealth‑address derivation, secret revelation and indexing so any privacy protocol can plug in. The goal is to have MetaMask, Rabby and other wallets adopt the SDK, making private sends/receives easy without enshrining any single privacy system.
Native Interop Upgradability: Rollups settle outputs in heterogeneous formats, so an L2 verifier must be able to adapt when a counterparty upgrades its stack. Without an upgrade path native interop re‑introduces multisig trust assumptions, hence the group agreed that some governance‑controlled upgrade mechanism is unavoidable.
Based Rollup Vision: Argued that exporting L1 (or L2) sequencing to a cluster of “based” rollups can offer a low‑friction composability zone, giving developers synchronous calls without rewriting contracts. Participants acknowledged the concept’s promise but noted open issues: L1 builder MEV dynamics, fee pass‑through design, and the risk of a single sequencing bottleneck.
EIPs/ERCs
EIPs (Ethereum improvement proposals):
ERCs (application layer):
Client Release
Consensus Layer
Nimbus v25.7.0: a low-urgency release
Lighthouse v7.1.0: low-priority maintenance release
Execution Layer
Reth v1.5.1: a maintenance release focusing on stability improvements and bug fixes
Erigon v3.0.14: Fixes
Ecosystem
The Future of Ecosystem Development at the EF: four new teams to drive EcoDev—enterprise relations, developer growth, app relations & research, founder success
BuilderNet v1.5: introduces EVM caching, a faster root hash, and trusted TLS certificates to improve the security and experience of submitting orderflow
Ethereum Community Foundation: transparently funds Ethereum projects that are immutable, credibly neutral, token-free, and maximally burn ETH
Ethereum Time Capsule: captures 10 years of Ethereum history
Lido dual governance approved: enables stETH holders to express discontent and exit the protocol through a dynamic timelock mechanism
Devconnect Argentina volunteer applications open
Research & Paper
EIP-4444 reduces the disk space required by Ethereum nodes by 300-500 GB, primarily by removing pre-Merge block data. This allows nodes to fit on 2 TB disks, improving efficiency without compromising security. While Ethereum no longer requires full historical block validation, the data will remain accessible through external providers, torrents, and the peer-to-peer network.
ePBS scales Ethereum by separating the execution and consensus layers. However, it may increase the capital required for block building, raising barriers for new builders and reducing competition. The shift to a first-price auction could also change bidding strategies. While ePBS offers better scalability, it may result in more concentration in the builder market.
Stats
Fees:
Gas: 0.2 to 26.8 gwei, 2.1 gwei average; zero net issuance at 20.5 gwei
16.8k ETH net issuance this week
ETHUSD: $2,524 – $3,021, currently $2,994, all time high $4,878
ETH/BTC: currently 0.025 (Flippening at ~0.165)
L2 Total Value Locked: 12.31 M ETH, -5.81% in 7 days
ETH ETF: 331.24K ETH net inflow (July 7 – July 11)