At the latest Ethereum Core Developers Conference (ACDC), developers discussed new research on client diversity data collection, multi-client block verification, and the progress of the Pectra upgrade. This article is sourced from Christine Kim and compiled, translated, and written by BlockBeats.
During the meeting, developers reviewed the preparation status of the Pectra upgrade and discussed some unresolved issues and proposals regarding PeerDAS implementation. Additionally, Nimbus developer Etan Kissling shared the progress of the implementation work for EIP 7688 and EIP 6493, emphasizing the importance of these proposals for upgrading Ethereum’s data serialization methods.
Christine Kim, Vice President of Research at Galaxy Digital, detailed the key points of the meeting. The ACDC call #136 took place on June 27, 2024, with Ethereum developers gathering on Zoom. The ACDC call is a bi-weekly series led by Ethereum Foundation researcher Alex Stokes to discuss and coordinate changes to the Ethereum Consensus Layer (CL). Developers discussed new research on client diversity data collection and multi-client block verification.
They also shared the latest progress on the Pectra upgrade. Pectra Devnet 1 is nearing release readiness. The Ethereum Foundation’s Development and Operations (DevOps) team is waiting for the readiness of the Execution Layer (EL) clients. Teku developer Mikhail Kalinin shared updates on EIP 6110 specifications. PeerDAS Devnet 1 is live, with three different consensus layer client implementations. Code changes for SSZ, EIP 7688, and EIP 6493 are in progress, although a decision has not been made on including these additional EIPs in Pectra.
New Research
Jorge Arce-Garro, a researcher at Nethermind, shared his team’s recent research on improving node operator reports on client diversity data collection methods. The study, funded by the Ethereum Foundation, proposed three different methods to facilitate validator node operators in conveying client types. The methods were evaluated based on their complexity, security, and ability to protect the anonymity of node operators. Arce-Garro requested feedback on the research, which has been published on Ethresearch.
Next, Geth developer Péter Szilágyi shared his team’s latest work on supporting cross-verification in the Execution Layer (EL). The idea, initially proposed by Szilágyi in November 2023, aims to increase Ethereum’s resilience in case of significant errors in major clients. EL cross-verification allows multiple clients to verify blocks. Szilágyi emphasized the need for significant changes to the Engine API to implement EL cross-verification. He also shared benchmark test data showing an approximately 20% impact on block import performance. Szilágyi highlighted the need for further testing and benchmarking.
Due to the complexity of the proposed changes, developers at the meeting, such as Guillaume Ballet, Lukasz Rozmej, and Ahmad Mazen Bitar, raised questions about their priority, especially in relation to the upcoming Pectra upgrade and subsequent Verkle code changes. Developers discussed starting with smaller parts of the project rather than committing to the entire project, such as updating the JSON and binary encoding of the Engine API. Szilágyi emphasized the long-term effort needed for this software direction. No specific decision was made on the project. Szilágyi reiterated that all details are shared on GitHub and welcomed feedback.
Electra Update
DevOps engineer Parithosh Jayanthi from the Ethereum Foundation mentioned that his team is awaiting the initiation of Pectra Devnet 1 by the EL client teams. Teku developer Mikhail Kalinin stated that he has completed the specification changes for EIP 6110, which adds a queue mechanism on the Consensus Layer (CL) to handle new validator deposit requests from the Execution Layer. Kalinin requested developers to provide feedback on his proposed changes.
DevOps engineer Barnabas Busa from the Ethereum Foundation shared the latest progress of PeerDAS development. He noted that the second PeerDAS development network is live, with three different consensus layer client implementations. Busa mentioned that his team has started stress testing the development network and has identified some issues in client implementations that are being worked on.
Stokes highlighted some unresolved issues regarding PeerDAS, including how the blob gas limit should be passed between the Execution Layer (EL) and Consensus Layer (CL) and how the calculation of the blob base fee should be handled. Developers are weighing multiple proposals to address these issues. Stokes requested developers to review these proposals more carefully in the coming weeks to reach a consensus at future meetings.
Lastly, Nimbus developer Etan Kissling shared the progress of the implementation work for EIP 7688 and EIP 6493. These code changes involve upgrading Ethereum’s data serialization methods. While these changes have not been formally included in the Pectra upgrade, some developers are eager to include them soon. Kissling expressed his desire to include EIP 7688 in Pectra Devnet 2, sparking concerns from client team representatives and the Ethereum Foundation DevOps team. Stokes suggested reevaluating the readiness of EIP 7688 in the Pectra development network at a later stage.
Regarding the progress of EIP 6493, Kissling shared that the EthereumJS Execution Layer client has a working implementation, and he is working on creating a client demo for the proposal.