Wang Long Chai
January 17, 2025 07:36
Ethereum developers gathered at ACDE Call #203, chaired by Tim Beiko, to discuss updates to Pectra Devnet 5, gas limit testing, and RPC standardization.
On January 16, 2025, Ethereum protocol developers gathered virtually for All Core Developers Execution (ACDE) Call #203, chaired by Tim Beiko of the Ethereum Foundation. According to galaxy.com, the biweekly meeting is an important platform for developers to discuss and coordinate changes to the Ethereum execution layer, a core component of the blockchain ecosystem.
Pectra Devnet 5 released
The meeting began with a discussion of Pectra Devnet 5, which was released shortly before the meeting. EF Developer Operations Engineer Parithosh Jayanthi has reported a gas estimation issue on devnet and plans to further investigate and resolve this issue in the Ethereum Research & Development Discord channel.
Pectra Specification Updates
Developers reviewed updates to the Pectra code specification, focusing on five key areas: Among these, EIP 7623 and EIP 7840, which relate to processing gas refunds and adjusting base fee portions, respectively, were discussed. In particular, EIP 7691 clarifies that excessive gas calculations occur at post-fork boundaries using the new fork rules, a change that has already been tested in clients.
System contract audit and testnet scheduling
EF Protocol security researcher Fredrik Svantes announced that a third-party audit of Pectra’s system contracts had been completed but did not yield any significant findings. Tim Beiko proposed a testnet upgrade schedule for the Sepalia and Holesky testnets in February, with a possible mainnet upgrade by mid-March depending on successful testnet performance.
Holesky gas limits and RPC standardization
The discussion also covered setting Holesky’s default gas limit to 36 million to see if it would be higher than the Ethereum mainnet for pre-testing gas limit increases. Geth developer Felix Lange expressed concern about the lack of feedback on the Ethereum JSON-RPC standardization effort, suggesting further discussions and a dedicated breakout meeting to address these issues.
Specify Node Requirements
EF’s Kevaundray Wedderburn sought feedback on minimum node hardware and bandwidth requirements. The differences between verification nodes and full nodes have been highlighted, and further discussions are planned to improve these specifications.
Upcoming EIP Editors Workshop
The EIP Editor Workshop hosted by Ethereum Cat Herders is scheduled for January 17, 2025. This event will provide insight into the EIP editing process and encourage participation from the Ethereum community.
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