Good evening,
In a prior newsletter, I discussed protocol changes in Ethereum’s development that would impact block-building dynamics.
They included enshrined proposer builder separation (ePBS), a feature forthcoming in Ethereum’s next major network-wide upgrade, Glamsterdam, and fork choice enforced inclusion lists (FOCIL), a feature developers recently agreed to prioritize in the upgrade after Glamsterdam called Hegota.
Tonight, I want to highlight non-protocol-level changes in the works by the research and development organization Flashbots, which are also anticipated to impact block-building dynamics on Ethereum and beyond.
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 Testing (ACDT) #71.
Blob-Devnet-0
Blob-Devnet-0, the test network for supporting partial cell requests, currently supports Lighthouse and Prysm client implementations.
Matthew Keil from the Lodestar team said their implementation should be ready by this Thursday.
Saulius Grigaitis from the Grandine team said they will be ready next week.
Stefan Bratanov from the Teku team did not give a timeline, but shared that they are also working towards joining Blob-Devnet-0.
Bal-Devnet-3
Bal-Devnet-3, the test network for the execution layer (EL) features of the Glamsterdam upgrade, is on track for a launch on March 4.
To avoid delays to the Bal-Devnet-3 launch, developers agreed to use hard-coded values to generate static tests for Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 8037, State Creation Gas Cost Increase.
Developers will reference tests for EIP 8037 from the Ethereum execution layer specifications (EELS) GitHub repository, rather than the EIP itself, just for Bal-Devnet-3.
Ethereum Foundation (EF) Developer Operations Engineer Parithosh Jayanthi highlighted a new Engine API endpoint that all EL client teams should add to their Bal-Devnet-3 implementations, which will significantly enhance software debugging efforts.
Epbs-Devnet-0
Epbs-Devnet-0, the test network for the consensus layer (CL) features of the Glamsterdam upgrade, is scheduled for launch on March 4.
There is already a working test network that supports interoperability between Lodestar and Lighthouse clients.
Ideally, Epbs-Devnet-0 will support three to four CL clients.
Gas Limit Testing
Block gas limit testing efforts are currently focused on benchmarking for the gas repricing EIPs in Glamsterdam.
Perf-Devnet-2
Perf-Devnet-2, the test network for testing EL clients at higher state growth levels, is back up and running.
Developers will run snapshots and further analysis on the devnet once Erigon nodes are fully synced.
Developers also agreed to relaunch the devnet with a different distribution of validator keys across nodes to identify more client performance bottlenecks.
🌕 That’s all for my summary of ACDT #71. 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:
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🔎 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.)
Flashbots is an organization that single-handedly revolutionized block building on Ethereum both before and after the protocol’s transition to proof-of-stake.
