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.

ChainCatcher message, the 171st Ethereum Execution Layer Core Developer Meeting (ACDE) was held on September 28. Ethereum supporter Tim Beiko summarized the meeting, stating that the main topics discussed were:Progress of the Devnet developer testnet (Devnet-9 is expected to go live tomorrow, and the next step is to launch Devnet-10, primarily for testing EIP-7514, which sets the validator activation queue limit Max Epoch Churn Limit to 8, slowing the growth of ETH staking rates to allow time for designing a better validator reward scheme; once completed, it will enter the public testnet phase);Review of the EIP-4788 audit (mainly identified two major issues related to zero timestamps and Ring Buffer size; EIP-4788 aims to allow contracts on the EL to access the CL, primarily related to staking & MEV);Review of the Holesky restart (there were some issues an hour before the launch, but the network gradually stabilized afterward and achieved finality);Introduction of EIP-7503 (to implement privacy transfers of ETH, where users send ETH to a provably unspendable address, and then, using a new transaction type, they can provide proof that they burned the ETH and re-minted it at another address), and the removal of a small note in EIP-6780 (this EIP mainly modifies the functionality of the SELFDESTRUCT opcode, primarily to prepare for future applications of Verkle trees), etc.

ChainCatcher news, Galaxy Research Vice President Christine Kim stated that on July 27, Ethereum core developers gathered on Zoom for the 114th All Core Developers Consensus (ACDC) call. The ACDC call, hosted by Ethereum Foundation researcher Danny Ryan, is held bi-weekly, where developers discuss and coordinate changes to the Ethereum Consensus Layer (CL). This week, developers discussed updates on the Deneb test work and two EIPs that may be considered for inclusion in the next CL upgrade after Deneb, now referred to as Electra.Last week, developers conducted a shadow fork of the Sepolia test network and are currently updating tools in preparation for the launch of Devnet #8. Devnet #8 is expected to be launched later this week or early next week. Ethereum Foundation researcher Hsiao-Wei Wang is preparing a new version of the CL code specification for Devnet #8, which will be ready for client teams before Monday, July 31.The next update will also include two EIP upgrades, namely EIP 6914 and EIP 6110. EIP 6914 introduces a method for reusing the validator index number of validators that have fully exited the beacon chain. By ensuring that there are no large gaps in the validator index when nodes process withdrawals and scan the validator set, unnecessary computational burdens on CL nodes can be prevented. EIP 6110 changes will attach new validator deposits to EL blocks, so that the responsibility for including and validating deposits is handled by EL rather than CL. This transfer of responsibility will bring several benefits, including: reduced complexity in Ethereum client software design; improved security of validator deposits; and enhanced user experience for validators.

ChainCatcher news, Ethereum developers held the first All Core Developers (ACD) meeting of 2023 this week. The current goal for Ethereum developers is to launch the public testnet for the Shanghai upgrade in early February, with the mainnet launch tentatively scheduled for sometime in March 2023.Additionally, the developers agreed to remove code changes related to the implementation of EOF from the Shanghai upgrade, and also agreed to reject any other Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) from the Shanghai upgrade in place of the EOF EIP, primarily to ensure that the timeline for staking ETH withdrawals will not be delayed. As the only major code change for the Shanghai upgrade, staking ETH withdrawals are being tested on a developer-focused testnet. Furthermore, the developers agreed to focus the Cancun upgrade, following the Shanghai upgrade, on EIP-4844. (source link)

ChainCatcher message, Ethereum core developer Tim Beiko stated on Twitter: "The last Ethereum core developer meeting (AllCoreDevs) of the year will be held on December 8 at 14:00 UTC (December 8 at 22:00 Beijing time). This will be a significant event, and the team hopes to reach a consensus on the scope of the next network upgrade." (source link)

ChainCatcher news, OP Labs CEO Liam Horne tweeted that Ethereum core developers will hold a conference call on Thursday to discuss the inclusion of EIP-4844 in the consideration framework (CFI). However, "inclusion in the consideration framework" does not mean that EIP-4844 will be included in the next hard fork; the content of the Shanghai upgrade will be discussed separately.It is reported that previously, Vitalik Buterin shared the idea of Proto-danksharding on Twitter (EIP-4844), which focuses on data validation scenarios for blob-carrying transactions that cannot be executed by the EVM. Proto-danksharding will replace Danksharding, a sharding technique where only one proposer selects all transactions and data entering this or that slot, rather than selecting a separate proposer for each shard. The solution proposed by Vitalik could be a temporary variant, as it includes the implementation of some sharding techniques. At the same time, it leads to an increase in data usage, as it requires a larger block size. Vitalik proposed to automatically delete blob data every 30 days to prevent excessive demands on data and memory storage from the network. (source link)