Good evening,
Tonight, I’m talking about two Hegota headliner proposals that seek to do the same thing: protect end-users from frontrunning and sandwiching attacks.
One is more complex than the other but offers users stronger transaction inclusion guarantees.
In theory, both promise stronger censorship resistance and fairer execution. In practice, the real question is whether users and wallets will adopt them.
Let’s get into it.
Yours truly,
Christine D. Kim
🗒️ Call Minutes
(For background on the ACD process and jargon used on these calls, refer to the Ethereum Governance 101 document in the ACD Toolkit.)
First, here’s a quick summary of the latest Ethereum developer call, All Core Developers Execution (ACDE) #230.
Bal-Devnet-2
Bal-devnet-2 is still running. No major issues to report in clients.
The Erigon client has not yet joined the devnet.
Developers agreed to close PR #11094 (Update EIP-8024: Switch encoding to push-postfix) in the ethereum/EIPs repository due to a lack of consensus on the change.
Developers favored merging PR #11306 (Update EIP-8024: Switch to branchless normalization) in the ethereum/EIPs repository, as it would make implementation of one of the proposals in Glamsterdam slightly simpler.
Bal-Devnet-3
During a breakout meeting on Wednesday, developers agreed on two minor specification changes to block-level access lists (BALs). They agreed to test these changes on the next devnet, Bal-devnet-3.
They also agreed to expand the scope of testing on Bal-devnet-3 to three additional EIPs: EIP 8037 (State creation gas cost increase), EIP 7954 (Increase Maximum Contract Size), and EIP 7975 (eth/70 - partial block receipt lists).
As discussed on ACDE #229, developers will prioritize a handful of client-level optimizations for BALs in Bal-devnet-3.
Finally, in addition to EIP 7975, developers will include the next version of Ethereum’s messaging protocol, called the Wire Protocol, eth/71, for testing on a future devnet.
Hegota
Besu client developer Justin Florentine and Ethereum Foundation (EF) Researcher Anders Elowsson presented the “LUCID encrypted mempool” proposal as a headliner feature for the Hegota upgrade.
In addition to LUCID, three other execution layer (EL)-focused headliner proposals are under evaluation for Hegota.
Florentine said there will be a breakout meeting on LUCID next Wednesday at 15:00 UTC for anyone interested in learning more about the proposal.
Geth client developer “Lightclient” shared updates on EIP-8141, Frame Transaction, another Hegota headliner proposal, and highlighted that an implementation and corresponding tests for the proposal are being written.
EF Researcher and Chair of the ACDE, Ansgar Dietrichs, said client teams should work towards having a write-up on their preferences for the EL Headliner by the next ACDE call in two weeks.
🌕 That’s all for my summary of ACDE #230. Continue reading for my insights on Ethereum development and governance. To read the rest of the newsletter, make sure you are signed up for a premium subscription:
🌓 New to the ACD calls and want to learn more about Ethereum protocol development? Explore the ACD Toolkit, which is included with a premium subscription. It contains evergreen resources and materials that teach you the fundamentals of tracking the evolution of Ethereum like a pro:
🌑 I also offer professional consulting services for business building on Ethereum or Bitcoin. If you’d like to learn more, please visit my advisory services website:
🔎 Insights
(Quotes featured in this section may be edited for grammar and clarity. For more information on the people quoted in this section, refer to the ACD Call Directory in the ACD Toolkit.)
Two of the four EL-focused Hegota headliner proposals aim to encrypt transactions in the public mempool to protect users from “toxic MEV.”
Toxic MEV refers to transaction reordering strategies that worsen execution for users — most notably frontrunning and sandwich attacks.
