Eth News and Links
Mainnet execution layer
- Latest core devs call video. Notes from Tim Beiko: interop between execution and consensus clients started for PoW switch off
- Geth v1.10.9: bugfix release, drops eth/65 networking protocol
- Erigon v2021.10.01: hotfix for RPC daemon dual mode, upgrade if using v2021.09.05
- EthereumJS v0.1: TypeScript client for R&D (not production, can’t sync yet)
EIPs/Standards
- EIP4337: Account Abstraction via Entry Point Contract specification
Proof of stake consensus layer
- Danny Ryan’s Finalized PoS update: PoW switch off specs are near feature complete, core logic is stable, client teams now building out logic and testing with other teams on short-lived devnets
- Altair mainnet release specs
- PoW switch off interop spec
- NodeWatch: consensus node explorer
- Prysmatic Labs wants to avoid Prysm majority by working to support validator API for cross client GUIs, beacon API for easier client switching, remote signer for institutions and standards for picking clients
- Security review of Beacon chain clients focusing on Lighthouse and Prysm, 35 issues reported (none high severity) and analysis of supply-chain risks
- Mutable forest memory model for consensus pyspecs
- Stereum v1.7 (beacon chain client installer): update launcher for security fixes from ongoing audit
- Proofs of Custody: how it fixes incentives to keep validators from getting lazy
Layer2
- Optimism OVM v2.0 on Kovan testnet Oct 14 and mainnet Oct 28, 4-6 hours downtime during upgrade
- Design challenges of general purpose zkEVM, solutions are polynomial commitments, lookup tables, more feasible recursive proof and hardware acceleration
- Proof of correctness of Cairo program execution
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Stuff for developers
- Solidity v0.8.8 and v0.8.9 (bug fixes): user defined value types (fixed in v0.8.9), override keyword optional for interface functions, read immutable variables in the constructor, min and max for enums, fix for signed immutables (introduced in v0.6.5)
- VS Code Solidity v0.0.129: support for multiple folders in workspaces and remappings
- Use Solidity @custom natspec tags to add structured information into the metadata json and hashed into the bytecode
- EthereumJS releases: Block, Blockchain ready for PoW switch off (experimental), Snappy Compression for devp2p (RLPx v5), custom chain genesis state support, consensus bug fix in Blake precompile
- web3.js v1.6.0: switching out old dependencies preparing to LTS v1.x
- ethers-rs v0.5.3 (Rust): configure optimizer and pass arguments to compiler, decimal support, fixed wei calculation
- starknet-hardhat-plugin (Cairo): use Hardhat to compile, deploy and test with Mocha
- MakerDAO governance managing contracts on Arbitrum and Optimism using async messages
- Debugging Compound bug using dapptools
- Ethermine private RPC endpoint
- Guide to run your own node alongside Infura
- Forta decentralized security protocol for real-time monitoring of contracts, incubated by OpenZeppelin
Security
- Compound bug gives large amounts of COMP rewards, bounded at 280k of COMP (~$83 million)
- DeversiFi deposit using hardware wallet had 7676 ETH gas fee, due to JavaScript library decimal handling and the Ledger hardware wallet displaying the fee in hex, funds were returned with 50 ETH fee
- Token revert phishing attacks show the downside of automatic token detection, Etherscan will only display error messages for updated tokens unless in advanced mode
- Symbolic value-flow static analysis of contracts, used to find 6 vulnerabilities with $350k paid in bug bounties
Ecosystem
- China regulatory fallout: Sparkpool shut, GasNow stops Oct 15, Beepool shuts Oct 15, Loopring stopping services to Chinese users, Alibaba stopping selling mining equipment, CoinGecko & CoinMarketCap blocked
- 1inch geoblocks US users
- Flashbots v0.4: introduces mega bundles, merged before sending to miners, merging & ordering can be moved upstream to Flashbots Relay
- Bot used baiting and fake Uniswap pool to drain ~30 ETH from sandwich bot
- Etherscan Input Data Messages beta to view onchain messages
Enterprise
- Visa’s ideas for cross chain stablecoin payments using universal payment channel hub, first sample contract on Ropsten testnet
- Société Générale (third largest French bank) $20 million collateral proposal to use MakerDAO to refinance euro bonds
- Fireblocks proposal to provide KYC/AML for Aave Arc (permissioned version of Aave)
Application layer
- TikTok Top Moments: creator NFTs on Immutable X, marketed as carbon neutral
- Twitter NFT profile pic prototype, connect wallet, download NFTs from OpenSea, select NFT to display profile pic with Ethereum logo checkmark, collectible tab shows NFTs owned
- Matcha gasless trading using 0x and professional market makers
- DAO legal vending machine: summon Moloch V2 DAO, preloaded with minion app to carry on external business, wrapped in charter
- Mirror opens crowdfund tools, 20 ETH cap for non-members
- POAP secret word minting on mobile apps, one POAP per mobile install
- dYdX perp liquidity far surpasses centralized exchanges
Job Listings
- Ethereum Foundation: Research Intern, read/think/write with Josh Stark
- Team Lead for the Ecosystem Support Program at the Ethereum Foundation
- Sigma Prime looking for a frontend dev and security engineer
- yAcademy 1 month internships
- Nethermind 1-3 month internship program
Reach people experienced with Ethereum. $345 per line (~75
character limit), payable in ETH or DAI/USDC to abcoathup.eth.
Questions? abcoathup at-gmail
Regulation/business/tokens
- US CFTC issues $1.25 million penalty to Kraken for offering margined retail commodity transactions in digital assets and failing to register
- Principles for stablecoin regulation: advance equitable access, ensure integrity of issuers & reserves and strengthen technological & operational resilience
- Coinbase to propose regulatory framework in US
- Dankrad Feist: productive assets are the real store of value
General
- Virgil Griffith pleads guilty to North Korea sanctions violation, plea deal for sentence up to 6.5 years, sentencing in January 2022
- Vitalik: blockchain governance and moving beyond financialization, response to Nathan Schneider
- Coinbase SMS account recovery hack between March and May impacts 6000 customers
- Mozilla suggests Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) v1.0 not be published as a W3C recommendation due in part to waste of energy in PoW
Follow @WeekinEthNews to find out what the most clicked links are. Follow @evan_van_ness and @abcoathup to get most of the week’s news in real time.
Permalink for this week’s issue: https://weekinethereumnews.com/week-in-ethereum-news-october-2-2021/
Dates of Note
Upcoming dates of note (new/changes in bold):
- Oct 7 – OpenZeppelin security in upgrades workshop
- Oct 18 – ENS online workshop
- Oct 20-21 – LisCon (Lisbon)
- Oct 22-24 – ETH Lisbon hackathon
- Oct 25 – Dec 13 – Gitcoin DAO Global hackathon (virtual)
- Oct 27 – Beacon chain upgrade to Altair epoch 74240
- Oct 28-29 – ETH Portland hackathon
- Nov 1-4 – NFT.NYC sold out
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