Jessie A Ellis
Aug 2, 2024 08:39
In ACDE Call #193, Ethereum developers, chaired by Tim Beiko, discuss the Pectra upgrade, EIP 7212, and quantum resistance.
According to galaxy.com, on August 1, 2024, Ethereum protocol developers gathered virtually for the All Core Developers Execution (ACDE) Call #193, chaired by Ethereum Foundation (EF) Protocol Support Director Tim Beiko. This biweekly meeting serves as a platform for developers to discuss and coordinate changes to Ethereum’s execution layer (EL).
Pectra DevNet 2
During the call, the developers shared updates on their ongoing Pectra upgrades, focusing on bug fixes in Pectra Devnet 2. The EF DevOps team re-launched Pectra Devnet 2 on July 30th due to an issue with EIP 7702 transaction that caused a chain split in the initial release. The developers have decided to exclude EIP 7702 from testing for now, but plan to reintroduce it in Devnet 3.
Notable issues were discussed, including block production issues with the Erigon client, which have since been resolved. The Prysm and Reth clients have also encountered issues that are currently being investigated. Independent developer Danno Ferrin suggested testing the EOF code change on Kurtosis before adding it to the Pectra devnet.
EIP 7702 (English)
EIP 7702, designed to improve the programmability of externally owned accounts (EOAs), was another key topic. The developers agreed not to change the current design, but noted that there could be potential minor adjustments as the EOF code changes progress further. EIP 7702 is scheduled to be included in the next Pectra devnet.
EIP 6110 (English)
Geth developer “Felix” proposed serializing validator deposit requests using Simple Serialize (SSZ) instead of Recursive Length Prefix (RLP) serialization to reduce protocol complexity. Some developers preferred to continue using JSON encoding, but ultimately the consensus was to move to SSZ.
Engine API Specification for “engine_getBlobsV1”
A new “getBlobsV1” method in the Engine API was discussed that allows Consensus Layer (CL) clients to fetch blobs from the EL blob transaction memory pool. The developers highlighted the need to specify behavior to prevent misuse and suggested revisiting this topic in the next ACDC call.
EIP 7212 (English)
EIP 7212, a precompiled contract for signature verification on the “secp256r1” elliptic curve, was discussed for inclusion in Pectra. Despite widespread support, developers decided to postpone its inclusion until other Pectra EIPs were further developed in testing. Additional test coverage was recommended to support future inclusion.
Quantum Resistance Attack
Erigon developer Andrew Ashikhmin raised concerns about the potential impact of quantum computers on Ethereum’s cryptography, citing Vitalik Buterin’s recent EthCC talk. The developers discussed the need to consider quantum-resistant cryptography methods, especially given the upcoming Verkle transition.
EF researcher Joshua Rudolf suggested separating the discussion on quantum resistance and optimal data structures. Beiko recommended continuing these discussions in specialized breakout calls and the Ethereum R&D Discord channel.
EIP 7736 (English)
Nethermind developer Wei Han Ng introduced EIP 7736 for state expiration that could be integrated with Verkle transitions. The proposal aims to slow down state growth on Ethereum by introducing new transaction types and constants to track active and expired state parts.
EIP 4444
EF Developer Operations Engineer Paritosh Jayanti provided an update on EIP 4444, which proposes using torrents to retrieve expired Ethereum history data. Developers are encouraged to review the proposal and provide feedback.
Image source: Shutterstock