Ethereum’s All Core Developer calls can be a lot to keep up with, so this “Checkpoint” series aims for periodic high-level updates, depending on what’s happening in core development. See the previous update here.
tl;dr
Glamsterdam progress is slow but steady: enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation (ePBS) implementation is proving to be trickier than anticipated and non-headliner features like gas repricing have their own complexities to work through.
The following upgrade, Hegotá, now has chosen its major feature, FOCIL, with a commitment to work on Account Abstraction as part of the minor feature set. Non-headlining EIP proposals can be submitted starting April 9th.
Glamsterdam
Implementation of Ethereum’s next upgrade, Glamsterdam, is well underway. The full list of considered and scheduled features and their summaries can be found on Forkcast. Features that are Scheduled (”SFI”) will almost certainly be in the upgrade when it goes live. Features that are Considered (”CFI”) are very likely to be included but their inclusion will depend on their complexity to implement and also the progress and compatibility of the Scheduled features being implemented before them. The definitions for these stages are subject to refinement to better describe the process!
Glamsterdam’s specific set of features include several gas repricings that are mostly being prioritized as a bundle. Ecosystem developers have also been constructively vocal about the importance of EIP-7954, an increase to the maximum contract size, which is consequently likely to be prioritized.
A major sticking point of Glamsterdam progress is ePBS, which splits block production into two parties acting in sequence inside consensus instead of the way it currently happens outside of the protocol, so the protocol now has to handle disagreement or failure between them. Every part of the stack has to reason about “partial blocks” and two-party coordination, a change that touches practically everything.
On the execution layer side, Block-level Access Lists (BALs) are a fundamental rethinking of how gas and state access work and the BAL devnets are making predictable progress through these expectedly difficult problems.
Developers are aiming for the first generalized Glamsterdam devnet next week, if the current ePBS devnet can be stabilized. Following that, they’ll iterate through several such devnets that include more and more of the non-headliner features. Once they have a stable devnet with all the features that will be included, they will cut client releases, do final security reviews, move to testnets and, once those are confirmed stable, finally announce the mainnet fork date.
Hegotá
Hegotá is the upgrade following Glamsterdam – the selection process for its major feature has finished, with FOCIL (EIP-7805) selected as the consensus layer headliner. The execution layer had a heated debate over an Account Abstraction proposal, but lack of consensus over specific implementation choices led to the proposal (EIP-8141: Frame transactions) being moved to Considered for Inclusion (CFI) status as a non-headliner, a placeholder commitment to work on an Account Abstraction proposal that garners broader support among client developers, with participation by the community.
There’s increasing interest in prioritizing quantum resistance, but no standalone proposal has so far been introduced – only account abstraction proposals that include quantum resistance as part of a broader package.
Beginning April 9th, anyone can propose a non-headlining feature for Hegotá by pulling the EIP into the Proposed for Inclusion section of the fork’s meta EIP. The closing date for doing so will be announced at least two weeks in advance. You can always find the most up-to-date information on the Hegotá process and timeline on the Hegotá forkcast page.
The date for this upgrade will be highly dependent on Glamsterdam’s progress in the next few months.
Gas limit
Gas limit increases are continuously being tested on devnets, with the goal of enabling higher limits in Glamsterdam and beyond. The current target for the baseline gas limit is 60M, but testing is ongoing at much higher limits to understand the implications and optimizations necessary to achieve these higher limits. Much of the repricing work currently being implemented in Glamsterdam will enable safe higher limits.
EIP Champion’s Handbook
New resources have been published on the Protocol Support team website to help authors and advocates champion feature proposals and seek stakeholder feedback. If you’re interested in getting your feature into an Ethereum upgrade, check out the EIP Champions Handbook to navigate the process.
Fusaka’s quickness to follow Pectra drove excitement about faster Ethereum forks, but Glamsterdam has been proving to be trickier and more slow-going than anticipated. The feature changes are far from trivial, though client developers don’t seem to be particularly disheartened by the challenge. Glamsterdam in Q2 seems to me to be unlikely but the single headliner chosen for Hegotá means that, depending on how the non-headliner process goes, it could follow Glamsterdam in a shorter timeframe than Glamsterdam follows Fusaka. It still is possible that the client developers converge on an Account Abstraction proposal and promote it to headliner in recognition of its importance to the community.
Though not an “official Ethereum roadmap”, the strawmap published this year has reignited enthusiasm for having a guideline that can help inform feature choices during the upgrade process and seems to so far be a beneficial tool in helping the community agree on priorities.
Relevant ACD calls:
[ January 21st – April 9th ]
ACDT: 76, 75, 74, 73, 72, 71, 70, 69, 68, 67
ACDE: 234, 233, 232, 231, 230, 229
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