Summary of the 172nd Ethereum Core Developers Meeting (ACDE): Latest progress on Cancun Devnet testing and development of EVM object format

ChainCatcher news, Galaxy's Vice President of Research Christine Kim summarized the 172nd Ethereum Core Developers Execution (ACDE) call on October 12, where developers discussed the progress of the Cancun and Deneb (Dencun) tests and the development of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) Object Format, specifically:

The update for Devnet #9 launched on September 29: The current participation rate of Devnet #9 is 93%, meaning that 93% of validators are actively participating in network consensus. Currently, the 7% of non-operational validators are mainly composed of Geth (EL)/Teku (CL) validator nodes. There are also issues with the Erigon (EL)/Prysm (CL) client combination and the EthereumJS (EL) client. The Flashbots team is testing MEV-Boost relays and builders on Devnet #9. Blob transactions have not yet been tested through the MEV-Boost builder.

Devnet #10 will not be ready this week but may be ready next week. Developers hope to test the trusted setup files from the EIP 4844 KZG ceremony. Devnet #10 will feature a large validator set, including 330,000 active validators. At the launch of the development network, there will be a significant influx of validator deposits and exits, which will trigger a change in the churn limit from 5 changes to 4 changes within about a day or two after the network starts.

Latest progress on EVM Object Format (EOF) development: EOF is a set of EIPs focused on changes to the EVM, which is the virtual machine built on Ethereum for executing smart contract code. Currently, there are four main teams developing EOF: including Team Ipsilon, funded by the Ethereum Foundation, the EL client teams (such as Geth, Besu, and Nethermind), high-level language compiler teams (such as Solidity and Vyper), and smart contract developers. EOF needs to create a new container format for EVM code while still maintaining the current format.

Several developers, including Tim Beiko, are hesitant about the timeline for EOF implementation after the Dencun upgrade, which is estimated to be three to six months. Developers are considering incorporating another major code change from Prague/Electra, which is Verkle.