Good evening,
Today, Ethereum developers finalized the scope of the Fusaka upgrade.
They reconfirmed their intention to test 8 Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) on Fusaka Devnet-1. They also agreed to test an additional 3 EIPs for implementation on Fusaka Devnet-2.
With this decision, developers stated that they will not consider adding any further EIPs to Fusaka. They will restrict Fusaka scope to these final 11 EIPs. All other EIPs proposed for the upgrade have been declined for inclusion (DFI).
Below is my full call summary for the All Core Developers Execution Call (ACDE) #213.
Yours truly,
Christine D. Kim
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Key Decisions & Announcements
Fusaka Scope Finalized:
Developers reaffirmed Fusaka Devnet-1 will feature the following 8 EIPs:
EIP-7594: PeerDAS - Peer Data Availability Sampling
EIP-7823: Set upper bounds for MODEXP
EIP-7825: Transaction Gas Limit Cap
EIP-7883: ModExp Gas Cost Increase
EIP-7892: Blob Parameter Only Hardforks
EIP-7917: Deterministic proposer lookahead
EIP-7918: Blob base fee bounded by execution cost
EIP-7935: Set default gas limit to XX0M (Informational)
They agreed to add 3 EIPs for implementation on Fusaka Devnet-2 assuming there are no major issues or complications following the Fusaka Devnet-1 launch.
Developers said they would not consider expanding the scope of Fusaka beyond the above list of 11 EIPs.
Other decisions:
Developers agreed to do more testing related to block gas limit changes before formally planning out a strategy for doubling the block gas limit from 30m to 60m gas.
Ethereum Foundation (EF) Researcher Toni Wahrstatter proposed EIP 7928, block level access lists, as a “headliner” feature for the Glamsterdam fork. Aside from EIP 7928, there are three other headliner candidates:
Announcements:
Next week’s All Core Developers Testing (ACDT) and All Core Developers Consensus (ACDC) calls are cancelled. Ethereum protocol developers and researchers will instead be gathering in person for an “interop” event in Berlin. An updated look at what public calls are still scheduled next week on the Ethereum Protocol calendar can be found near the end of today’s email.
ACDE Call Chair Tim Beiko will be on leave the week after next, so EF Researcher Ansgar Dietrichs will be filling in for Beiko to chair the next ACDE meeting.
Notable Discussion
Editor’s note: Direct quotes featured in this section may be edited slightly for readability.
Should users be able to run Ethereum from home?
During the discussion about how to double Ethereum’s block gas limit and scale Ethereum Layer 1 (L1), Micah Zoltu, founder of Serv.eth, raised concerns about the impact of block gas limit increases on users who independently run an Ethereum node at home.
Increases to the block gas limit will also raise the minimum computational requirements, such as data storage and bandwidth, required to operate a node. Because of this, Zoltu asked whether developers have talked to local RPC providers and at-home node operators about how raising the block gas limit may impact their operations.
Zoltu then asked whether developers care at all about servicing these types of users in the Ethereum ecosystem. He said:
“The question I would like to see answered very clearly is: Do Ethereum core devs and [do we] as a group want people to be able to run Ethereum at home on their home computers or is that something we are no longer targeting? It used to be a target back in the day.”
The responses to Zoltu’s question were varied.
Dietrichs said developers have already agreed on and communicated to the community what the hardware and bandwidth requirements are for validators and full node operators in EIP 7870. Zoltu pointed out, however, that he raised concerns about the requirements listed in this EIP before it was finalized, so the EIP does not reflect the consensus of all developers. Other developers on the call also pointed out that EIP 7870 does not necessarily contain information about what developers are targeting as the minimum viable specifications for running Ethereum software in the long term.
EF Researcher Dankrad Feist said that discussions about users running Ethereum from home are “disconnected from reality” as the vast majority of users do not rely on their own infrastructure to connect to Ethereum. Feist said:
“I think we’re still thinking about Ethereum as if it were 2015. People want to run this node at home that has all these properties but the median Ethereum user now is so far away from that. … In practice, we know exactly what normal Ethereum users do, yet we keep designing for something completley different and I think we need to move away from that and be like, well, this is what is really happening. We want to get the median Ethereum users the best properties we can, rather than a small set of people who like do something very different from that.”
In rebuttal to Feist’s comments, Geth developer Marius van der Wijden wrote in the Zoom chat that the “median” Ethereum user may not need or prioritize values of decentralization and censorship resistance. Van der Wijden said developers should not necessarily optimize for the median Ethereum user.
Several developers pointed out that they themselves operate nodes from their homes and can continue to do so without issue, even if the block gas limit is doubled to 60m. Zoltu acknowledged this sentiment but said that conversations about raising the gas limit should be accompanied by discussions and research on how to continue sustaining hardware and bandwidth requirements that are user-friendly for those running Ethereum from home.
EF Developer Operations Engineer Barnabas Busa wrote in the Zoom chat:
“I don’t want Ethereum to become Solana 2. I want to be able to verify the chain at home. I think higher consumer hardware is acceptable up to about $5k range. I think bandwidth up to 100Mbps is acceptable.”
Zoltu recommended continuing the discussion on Discord asynchronously from the call. Beiko also reconfirmed that, as suggested by EF Developer Operations Engineer Parithosh Jayanthi, developers should continue testing higher block gas limits at next week’s in-person event in Berlin and strategize next steps from there.
🌻That’s all for my summary on ACDE #213. You are now officially caught up on the state of Ethereum protocol development and governance. Stay tuned for my insights on ACDE #213 (for paid subscribers only) coming out tomorrow. 🌻
Below are links for further reading on the topics discussed on ACDE #213.
Glamsterdam Headliner Proposals
EIP 7928, block level access lists (Ethereum Magicians Forum)
Available attestation (Ethereum Magicians Forum)
Fork choice inclusion lists (Ethereum Magicians Forum)
EVM64 (Ethereum Magicians Forum)
Fusaka Devnet-1 Specifications
Planning document (Ethpandaops Post)
Background on EIP 7870 Discussion
Pectra Retrospective w/Nixo and Yorick (Infinite Jungle Podcast)
Here’s what’s coming up next week on the Ethereum Protocol Call Calendar:
Monday June 9
12:00 UTC/8:00 ET, Eth Simulate Implementors Meeting #52
14:00 UTC/10:00 ET, All Core Developers Testing Call(CANCELLED)15:00 UTC/11:00 ET, RPC Standards Call #6
15:30 UTC/11:30 ET, Portal Implementors Call #58
Tuesday June 10
16:00 UTC/12:00 ET, EIP Editing Office Hour
Wednesday June 11
14:00 UTC/10:00 ET, RollCall #13
Thursday June 12
14:00 UTC/10:00 ET, All Core Developers Consensus Call(CANCELLED)
Friday June 13
No calls scheduled on this day.
📅 Call days and times may be subject to change so please utilize the links shared above to reconfirm meeting details day of. 📅
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Newsletter credits:
Special thanks to Shinhye Kim for the graphics in this newsletter.