Faculty Research Fellowship: Ethereum Studies (AY 2025–2026)
Enables Prof. Strnad to dedicate substantial research time to Ethereum-focused problems, including DAO governance, decentralized system administration, and optimistic rollup challenge periods, while advising OpenLab scholars.
Security
Research
EL+CL & Glamsterdam Security
Enhances Ethereum’s security by proactively identifying vulnerabilities in execution and consensus layer clients ahead of the Glamsterdam upgrade. This research strengthens the network’s resilience.
Nodes and Clients
Application
Lodestar 2026
Develops and maintains the Lodestar consensus client, implementing hard forks and contributing protocol research. This supports operator UX and ecosystem tooling for TypeScript and Zig Ethereum communities.
Lighthouse client development continues with ePBS, Gloas, and partial messages networking for mainnet. This work expands tree sync, the Diamond testing framework, and ZK-verified consensus. Formal verification and client hardening efforts also progress.
Develops a production-grade, Rust-based Private Information Retrieval library. This enables efficient, batched queries for key-value databases up to 32GB, optimizing server and client communication without requiring state.
Maps Ethereum consensus specifications to client implementations, ETHeorem enables systematic security assessment across Lighthouse, Prysm, geth, and Reth. This agentic system combines LLMs with program analysis for full-stack coverage.
Ethereum Protocol
Application
Ream – Lean Consensus Client in Rust
Develops Ream, a Rust-based Lean Consensus Client, to advance post-quantum-ready consensus with fast finality and 4-second slots. This renewal supports core client development, testing infrastructure hardening, and scaling devnets to 10,000 validators.
Models economic incentives and participant behavior to optimize protocol game theory, enhancing network stability and efficiency.
Application Infrastructure
Research
Ethereum LLM Optimization (Inseeq)
Enhances AI models with current Ethereum development tooling and ethskills data. This improves LLM accuracy and strengthens Ethereum’s appeal for developers seeking a blockchain to build on.
Technical Review of Fiat–Shamir From Duplex Sponges
Audits the security arguments of Fiat-Shamir transformations instantiated via duplex sponges. This work clarifies key abstractions to support future Lean formalization, strengthening zero-knowledge proof systems.
Zero-knowledge Proofs
Research
Ethproofs Additional Hardware – Brevis
Brevis is building an on-premise, multi-GPU L1 block-proving stack to stress-test real-world operational resilience. This initiative will generate an open-source On-Prem Ops Playbook for future provers.
Ethereum Protocol
Ecosystem development
quic-go priorities for ethp2p
Enhances quic-go, the Go QUIC implementation underpinning Ethereum’s consensus layer networking. This work improves performance, transport capabilities, and connection efficiency for go-libp2p.
Application Infrastructure
Developer tooling
Web3j: Sustaining Ethereum’s JVM and Android integration infrastructure
Keeps Web3j, the dominant JVM client library, in sync with upcoming Glamsterdam hard fork. This ensures continued seamless integration for Java, Kotlin, and Android applications, alongside AI-targeted documentation.
Succinct is moving L1 block-proving to on-premise, multi-GPU setups. This will stress-test operational resilience and reduce cloud dependency, generating an open-source On-Prem Ops Playbook for future provers.
Zero-knowledge Proofs
Research
Ethproofs Additional Hardware – SilentSig
Enables ZisK to transition their L1 block-proving stack to on-premise, multi-GPU configurations. This initiative will generate an open-source On-Prem Ops Playbook to reduce ecosystem dependency on centralized cloud providers.
Other
Ecosystem development
Blockchain Curriculum train the trainers program for Mindanao
Enables 8 Philippine academic institutions to develop blockchain curricula. Supports faculty in becoming trainers, fostering local Ethereum education through a 6-day program.
Application Infrastructure
Developer tooling
mevlog-rs – EVM transactions querying CLI/TUI powered by Revm
Indexes on-chain data into a local SQLite database, accessible via TUI and MCP. This tool enables flexible local querying and IPFS sharing of results for developers and LLM agents.
Enables users to programmatically verify transaction outcomes before signing with EIP-7906. This includes positive and negative conditions against any smart contract, enhancing security and user control.
Steward, A Self-Sovereign Ethereum Wallet with an On-Device AI Assistant
Builds Steward, a fully local macOS Ethereum smart account wallet. Every component, from the light client to the AI assistant, runs on-device, ensuring end-to-end verifiable security and sovereignty.
Ethereum Protocol
Ecosystem development
Internship Program 2026 | Cryptography
Develops novel cryptographic primitives and security protocols, enhancing Ethereum’s foundational security and privacy for all users.
Privacy
Research
The Open Anonymity Project
Enables unlinkable access to gated API services, starting with AI inference. This open-source modular stack uses blind signatures and TEE-friendly servers for anonymous credit verification.
Zero-knowledge Proofs
Research
Ethproofs Additional Hardware – Matter Labs
Enhances Matter Labs’ L1 block-proving stack by transitioning to on-premise, multi-GPU configurations. This initiative stress-tests operational resilience and reduces cloud dependency, generating an open-source On-Prem Ops Playbook.
Ethereum Protocol
Ecosystem development
Internship Program 2026 | Cryptography Research
Formalizes the security model of Encrypted Mempools, enhancing transaction privacy and network resilience for Ethereum users.
Security
Developer tooling
Verity
Develops Verity, a Lean 4-based smart contract language and formally verified compiler. It enables developers to write, formally specify, and prove contract properties, compiling to EVM bytecode with verified semantics.
Verifies cryptographic protocols and zkVM circuits, ensuring mathematical correctness for Ethereum’s scaling infrastructure through formal methods.
Ethereum Protocol
Ecosystem development
Internship Program 2026 | Robust Incentives Group
Optimizes protocol game theory by applying mechanism design and economic modeling to understand and improve participant incentives.
Ethereum Protocol
Ecosystem development
ZK + testing exploration work
Explores zkVM runtime behavior across diverse hardware to optimize proving performance. This research aims to identify bottlenecks and enable more practical, near real-time proving for Ethereum mainnet applications.
Ethereum Protocol
Ecosystem development
Internship Program 2026 | Geth
Supports Geth’s core protocol development, client maintenance, and the implementation of new Ethereum Improvement Proposals.
Ethereum Protocol
Ecosystem development
Internship Program 2026 | Protocol Prototyping
Translates novel protocol research into working code. This enables empirical testing of theoretical assumptions and quantifies design trade-offs for future Ethereum upgrades.
Security
Application
SafeLens
Enables offline verification of Gnosis Safe multisig transactions. SafeLens generates evidence packages for signatures, hashes, and enriched proofs, allowing local transaction replay and human-readable details via built-in interpreters.
Enables ZisK to transition L1 block-proving to on-premise, multi-GPU setups. This initiative stress-tests operational resilience and reduces cloud dependency, generating an open-source On-Prem Ops Playbook for the ecosystem.
Builds Ethereum’s long-term resilience with Gean, a new Go-based consensus client. This open-source implementation replaces quantum-vulnerable cryptography and diversifies the client ecosystem from Africa.
Enhances Quixote, a Rust EVM event indexer, with Tor-based private reads and GraphQL support. Demonstrates its value by integrating it into the Aave frontend, replacing TheGraph for improved data access.
Develops an LLM-powered system to automate Ethereum client spec compliance checking and bug discovery. This includes formal verification of Gasper Lean 4 and a pipeline to bridge SPECA outputs into Lean 4 formal specifications.
Security
Developer tooling
Cantina Apex AI Code Analyzer for Security Vulnerabilities
Enhances Ethereum’s security posture with 52 AI-powered smart contract scans for client and protocol repositories over the next year.
Cryptography
Research
leanVM under Bitcoin constraints
Optimizes leanVM’s post-quantum signature aggregation for Ethereum’s consensus layer. This work enhances speed, improves efficiency, and ensures Bitcoin compatibility to establish an industry-wide standard.
Fostering the AI x Ethereum intersection, Urbe Hub in Rome hosts recurring workshops, demos, and builder sessions. This initiative cultivates cross-pollination events, strengthening both communities and collaborating with the EF dAI Team.
Develops efficient, verified implementations of prime and binary tower fields in Lean4. This work covers small STARK fields, large SNARK/curve fields, and binary tower fields, all proven correct via RingEquiv.
Ethereum “Reasonably Necessary” Frontier Use Case R&D
Investigates unique Ethereum use cases with real-world impact. This research also explores novel organizational structures beyond traditional crypto setups.
Zero-knowledge Proofs
Developer tooling
CompPoly Polynomials Lean Libary – Parts of Roadmap 2
Optimizes polynomial evaluation in CompPoly using Horner, batch, and NTT methods. Implements and verifies the Guruswami-Sudan algorithm for zkVMs, complete with Lean proofs and benchmarks.
Enhances Ethereum client security by deploying AI agents to scan Geth, Nethermind, Lighthouse, and Prysm against EIP specifications, identifying divergences and edge-case bugs.
Other
Research
Onchain Capital Instruments for Digital Public Goods
Develops onchain ESG funding instruments for Digital Public Goods, leveraging Ethereum to shift public goods funding from grants to scalable capital markets. This initiative designs bond-like mechanisms for large-scale infrastructure.
Extends CompPoly with advanced bivariate polynomial operations, including Guruswami-Sudan infrastructure and performance optimizations like Kronecker substitution, enhancing cryptographic primitive development.
Cryptography
Research
The recursive extraction problem
Investigates the security of recursive SNARKs, probing the limits of knowledge extractors in deep recursion. This research will analyze SNARK variants with superpolynomial extractor complexity to inform new proof frameworks for real-world systems.
Cryptography
Ecosystem development
Efficient Single-Server PIR for Ethereum Indexers
Evaluates modern Private Information Retrieval schemes for Ethereum data access. This work will specify a state-of-the-art scheme, complete with reusable tests, to enhance user privacy and reduce MEV risks.
Ethereum Protocol
Ecosystem development
Internship Program 2026 | Poseidon
Develops efficient post-quantum signature schemes for Ethereum’s execution layer, leveraging Poseidon-based constructions to prepare the network for the post-quantum transition.
Decentralizes L1 block-proving by moving infrastructure from cloud to on-premise, multi-GPU setups. This initiative will open-source an On-Prem Ops Playbook, providing a blueprint for future provers to enhance resilience.
Ethereum Protocol
Ecosystem development
Internship Program 2026 | STEEL
Enhances Ethereum’s core Python specifications (EELS) and test suites (EEST). This critical work ensures client compatibility and strengthens network consensus.
Privacy
Application
Kohaku Wallet Frontend Support – Follow Up
Refactors the Kohaku browser extension wallet and Railgun SDK integration. This work enhances maintainability and modularity, advancing the wallet for broader adoption and community contributions.
Cultivates a new cohort of Ethereum developers in Bhutan through an intensive residency. This program fosters local talent and seeds a self-sustaining developer community in the region.
Ethereum Protocol
Ecosystem development
Internship Program 2026 | PandaOps
Enables safe, well-tested network upgrades by building custom tooling, deployment scripts, and data pipelines for Protocol R&D.
Application Infrastructure
Ecosystem development
Open Intents Framework – Adoption & Maintenance 2026
Develops the Open Intents Framework, enhancing cross-chain liquidity rebalancing and supporting ERC-7683 specification development. This expands multi-chain capabilities and tooling for Ethereum.
Ethereum Protocol
Ecosystem development
Hong Kong Polytechnic University – Sponsorship of the Research Centre for Blockchain Technology (RCBT)
Fosters academic excellence in blockchain technology through scholarships for outstanding MScBT students. Supports talent development and engagement with Devconnect/Devcon, alongside sponsoring Asiacrypt 2026.
Optimizes exponentiation and proves multilinear transform equivalence for CompPoly. Integrates error-correcting interpolation via Berlekamp-Welch, enhancing the protocol’s robustness.
Ethereum Protocol
Ecosystem development
Internship Program 2026 | Protocol Consensus
Analyzes and designs advanced consensus mechanisms. This work strengthens protocol guarantees, fostering long-term network decentralization.
Ethereum Protocol
Ecosystem development
Internship Program 2026 | Funding Coordination
Facilitates connections between EF grantees and external funding sources. This helps essential public goods projects secure vital support from government, philanthropic, and ecosystem partners.
Enables decentralized provers to transition from cloud to on-premise, multi-GPU setups. This initiative will yield an open-source On-Prem Ops Playbook, strengthening ecosystem resilience and reducing reliance on centralized infrastructure.
Security
Developer tooling
Octane: LLM-Powered Protocol Security for Ethereum Clients
Enhances smart contract security with AI-powered vulnerability detection. This subscription provides 25 comprehensive scans, a project dashboard, and VIP support for up to four client projects.
Advances ZK-EVM research, developing scaling solutions and integrating ZK-proofs directly into the Ethereum execution layer.
Ethereum Protocol
Ecosystem development
Internship Program 2026 | Protocol Security
Enhances Ethereum’s security posture through proactive code reviews, advanced tooling, and robust bug bounty program management.
Ethereum Protocol
Ecosystem development
Internship Program 2026 | Protocol Consensus
Analyzing consensus mechanisms to strengthen long-term decentralization. This research helps close the gap between current protocol guarantees and future network goals.
Ethereum Protocol
Ecosystem development
Internship Program 2026 | Cryptography
Supports research into advanced cryptographic primitives and security protocols, ensuring Ethereum’s continued leadership in secure, privacy-preserving technology.
Ethereum Protocol
Ecosystem development
Internship Program 2026 | Cryptography
Advances Ethereum’s cryptographic security by designing and analyzing new primitives and protocols. This ensures robust, privacy-preserving technology for the future.
Ethereum Protocol
Ecosystem development
Verified zkEVM ArkLib Day at ZKProof 8
Expands ZKP standardization efforts by bringing together over 1,000 practitioners at ArkLib Day at ZKProof 8. This event fosters collaboration on formal verification and applied zero-knowledge proofs.
Develops a Noir to LLZK compiler, bridging two critical SNARK ecosystems. This enhances interoperability and expands the developer base for LLZK tooling, strengthening Ethereum’s SNARK security efforts.
Composable Orchestration, Batching Ethereum UX and Interop
Enables dynamic smart account batching and predicate-based execution. This project standardizes and open-sources a production orchestration stack, making composable multi-step, multi-chain transactions a public good for the Ethereum ecosystem.
Verifies SP1 Hypercube zkVM’s arithmetization using Lean 4, formally proving its constraint systems correctly implement RISC-V ISA semantics for each instruction.
Ethereum Protocol
Ecosystem development
Internship Program 2026 | zkEVM
Advances ZK-EVM research, developing scaling solutions and integrating ZK-proofs directly into Ethereum’s execution layer for enhanced efficiency.
Privacy
Application
Kohaku Wallet Frontend Support
Refines the Kohaku browser extension for a robust, privacy-first wallet UX on Sepolia. Integrates Privacy Pools and Railgun, optimizing the Ambire fork and user flows.
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