ChainCatcher news, according to the South China Morning Post, CoinDesk President Foster Wright has confirmed that the Consensus Hong Kong conference will be held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre from February 19 to 20, 2025.It is reported that the conference will cover topics including cryptocurrency, tokenization, the latest fintech and blockchain innovations, data management, and privacy technologies. This is also the first time in five years that the conference will take place outside the United States.

ChainCatcher news, Galaxy's Vice President of Research Christine Kim published a summary of the 111th Ethereum Core Developers Consensus Meeting. This meeting finalized the scope of the Cancun upgrade, including EIP-4844 (proto-danksharding) and EIP-4788, EIP-6988, EIP-7044, EIP-7045, and EIP-4788. Additionally, developers suggested increasing the maximum effective validator balance from 32 ETH to 2048 ETH and raising the maximum blob count per block from 4 to 6.First, developers discussed which CL-centric EIPs to include in Deneb. Teku developer Mikhail Kalinin provided an update on EIP-6988, which proposes a code change to prevent slashed validators forcibly ejected from the network from being selected by the protocol as block proposers. EIP-7044 proposes a code change to improve the staking experience, ensuring that signed validator exits remain permanently valid. EIP-7045 proposes a code change to enhance network security by expanding the inclusion range of proof slots. EIP-4788 proposes a code change to improve the staking experience by publicly disclosing the root of beacon chain blocks, which contain EVM internal chain state information for trust-minimized access by DApp developers. Ethereum Foundation researcher Alex Stokes stated that there are plans to merge the aforementioned three EIPs into the Deneb specification in the coming weeks and encouraged CL client teams to review them as soon as possible.Meanwhile, the CL client teams have agreed to test the increased blob count on the next EIP-4844 testnet Devnet 6 and will make a final decision on this matter within two weeks. In relation to the discussion around the maximum blob count, Nimbus developer arnetheduck raised the issue of increasing block reorganization on the mainnet after the Shanghai upgrade. arnetheduck proposed considering changing the 4-second deadline to aggregate validator proofs and send them through the network, and decided to investigate further.Ethereum Foundation researcher Michael Neuder proposed removing the 32 ETH staking cap to help reduce the growth of the active validator set. Developers discussed the potential drawbacks of this change and the possibility of launching partial and full withdrawals directly from the EL as part of the proposal for smart contract initiation. Developers agreed to continue discussing the implementation details of asynchronously changing the effective balance of Ethereum validators on ETHMagicians and Discord. Additionally, Ethereum core developers held their first coordination call regarding the launch of the Holesky testnet, which is expected to replace the existing Goerli testnet by the end of the year. (source link)