[REPOST] ACDE #213: Insights
Running this post back for all my subscribers
Good evening,
Ethereum protocol developers are meeting in person in Berlin this week, which means the usual virtual meetings between developers, namely the All Core Developers calls, are on a temporary break until next week.
While we wait to hear updates from developers about their gathering in Berlin, as these events, called “interop” events, are not open to the public, I thought I’d use this opportunity to run back my first paywalled post on this Substack.
It hasn’t been long since I started paywalling my posts, and to be honest, my paid audience is still relatively small right now, which means the vast majority of you receiving this email will not have read my insights on the latest All Core Developers Execution (ACDE) call, ACDE #213.
Not to fret, you can read it in today’s email for free. I hope you enjoy the additional analysis on ACDE #213 and that it motivates you to upgrade your subscriptions so you can get my insights every week.
For my paid subscribers who already read last week’s post, please skip ahead to the Further Reading and Coming Up sections of this email. You can still expect a new ACD After Hours post tomorrow. It’s one you don’t want to miss. It’s about the new Ethereum Foundation and the criticisms laid against the organization by one of its lead developers.
For today, though, I strongly encourage you to consider using some of the additional time you would have otherwise spent reading today’s email by engaging in the new subscriber chat, which launched this week! You can read more about the chat in this post.
Yours truly,
Christine D. Kim
The main topic of discussion
An important question was raised on ACDE #213 call by Micah Zoltu, founder of Serv.eth.
Should Ethereum users be able to run software that connects to and validates the Ethereum blockchain from home, or in other words, using consumer-grade hardware and networking devices?
Note that this is a separate question from whether there are sufficient incentives for many users to actually want to do this in practice. The question is whether this option should remain available for all users connecting to Ethereum.
To be clear, the option exists today, and as many developers pointed out on yesterday’s call, it will continue to exist even if the block gas limit on Ethereum is doubled to 60m gas.
(For context, increases to the block gas limit effectively increase the block size. The higher the limit, the more transactions validators can pack into a block, and the faster pending transactions on Ethereum can be processed. It’s the most rudimentary way to scale a blockchain. Now, it is not the only way developers seek to scale the Ethereum network. The primary scaling solution developers are working on is Layer-2 rollups, but not everyone agrees on how to make rollups work for Ethereum.)
Questioning Ethereum values
Zoltu’s question is about a future possibility that could become a reality. Users may one day be unable to connect to Ethereum from home due to a shift in values driving Ethereum protocol development today. Zoltu asked whether developers care about preserving the ability for anyone in the world to connect to Ethereum with their home computer and internet connection.
(Also, for context, Zoltu is a long-time advocate in the Ethereum community for preserving network properties of censorship resistance and decentralization. This is not the first time he’s spoken up on the ACD calls to raise concerns about shifting values in the Ethereum core developer community.)
The response was mixed.
On the one extreme, Ethereum Foundation (EF) Researcher Dankrad Feist said discussions about servicing home node operators were “disconnected from reality” and that developers need to “move away” from designing Ethereum with this goal in mind.
On the other extreme, EF Developer Operations Engineer Barnabas Busa was adamant that users should be able to run a node at home, and that he didn’t want Ethereum to become “Solana 2”.
Many developers on the call questioned the premise of Zoltu’s question entirely. Some suggested the line of questioning was not in accord with the ACD process. After all, many pointed out, there is a document that states recommended hardware and bandwidth requirements, so Zoltu should bring up his concerns as a formal request to change that document. Others debated the definition of a home node operator, questioning what type of node they would be running, in what country, and in what currency they would pay their internet bills.
The conversation devolved quickly from answering the spirit of Zoltu’s initial question, which asks not about implementation details or technical solutions to a present-day problem, but the values of Ethereum core developers driving their decisions about how to change the protocol.
ETH vs. BTC
For Bitcoin, the value of a user being able to connect to Bitcoin from a node they directly own and operate is indisputable. It is also a present reality that Bitcoin Core developers believe can and should be maintained indefinitely to ensure that Bitcoin retains properties of decentralization, credible neutrality, and censorship resistance.
Importantly, the value of preserving the option for users to run Bitcoin software on a home computer with an internet connection is vastly more important than the value of scaling the Bitcoin protocol.
For Bitcoiners, there is only one answer to Zoltu’s question.
For Ethereum, as illustrated on the most recent ACD call, the answer is unclear.
In fairness, the Ethereum protocol developer community is significantly larger than the Bitcoin Core developer community, resulting in a greater diversity of viewpoints on how Ethereum should be designed.
Also, Ethereum serves a much more diverse group of users and stakeholders than the Bitcoin protocol. Therefore, it’s more challenging to determine who exactly Ethereum developers are developing software for.
Feist appears to be under the impression that the audience is end-users, and so, developers should prioritize the needs of Ethereum end-users; however, developers also expect the vast majority of end-users to one day leave Ethereum to use rollups, in which case, the direct users of Ethereum would become rollup service providers, who would presumably value Ethereum for its qualities of decentralization, credible neutrality, and censorship resistance over and above scalability. But, I digress…
My point is that it is unclear who developers are targeting as the long-term users of Ethereum software. For now, developers have some room to maneuver without directly addressing this question and significantly altering the status quo of their existing user base. However, they won’t always, especially as they look ahead to even larger increases in block gas limit and blob capacity.
When push comes to shove, what values will Ethereum developers prioritize?
🌼That’s all for my takeaways on ACDE #213. In case you missed it, here’s my full summary of last week’s call:
As a reminder, I offer professional consultations on Ethereum protocol development and governance. If you’d like to book a session with me to get tailored insights into the evolution of Ethereum for your business or portfolio, please use my Calendly scheduling page linked below. I look forward to speaking with you! 🌼
[UPDATED] Below are links for further reading (or watching) on the topics discussed on ACDE #213:
Fusaka Planning
Glamsterdam Scoping
Tips and Tricks for the Community
[UPDATED] Here’s what’s coming up next week on the Ethereum Protocol Call Calendar:
Monday June 16
12:00 UTC/8:00 ET, Eth Simulate Implementors Meeting #53
14:00 UTC/10:00 ET, All Core Developers Testing Call #40
15:00 UTC/11:00 ET, Stateless Implementors Call #38(POSTPONED)15:30 UTC/11:30 ET, Portal Implementors Call #59
Tuesday June 17
14:00 UTC/10:00 ET, FOCIL Implementors #13
16:00 UTC/12:00 ET, EIP Editing Office Hour
Wednesday June 18
14:00 UTC/10:00 ET, EIPIP Meeting #117
17:00 UTC/13:00 ET, AllWalletDevs Call #34
Thursday June 19 (Juneteenth, US Federal Holiday)
14:00 UTC/10:00 ET, All Core Developers Execution Call #214
Friday June 20
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 closer to the meeting date. 📅
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