Layer 1 Protocol

Challenges of Parallelizability under Ethereum's Execution Model

We highlight two challenges of parallel execution on Ethereum: 1. Historical data shows that data dependencies force us to execute a large portion of transactions serially. 2. If we assign incentives to scheduling decisions, this might introduce non-determinism that the system cannot tolerate. In this lightning talk, we present these two problems and outline some proposed solutions. Note that this work was accepted for and presented at ICSE'22 (https://bit.ly/3HzPKZT)

Danksharding Workshop

Danksharding (full danksharding and EIP-4844) is the Ethereum layer 1 scaling protocol that Ethereum R&D teams are working on these days. This workshop is organized by the Ethereum Foundation Consensus R&D team. We will introduce to you the danksharding family solutions.

Debugging the Ethereum Merge with Parallel Universes

The Ethereum merge is a high-stakes event for the entire industry, and requires several large, stateful, distributed software systems to behave flawlessly in order for it to succeed. Unfortunately, it’s very difficult to develop distributed stateful systems like a blockchain with high confidence. Many of the worst bugs in these systems don’t show up in the happy case, but require particular network, hardware, or timing conditions in order to manifest.

EELS: The Future of Execution Layer Specifications

Peter Davies gives an overview of the work of the EELS (Ethereum Execution Layer Specifications) team on the [new executable specifications](https://github.com/ethereum/execution-specs) for the Ethereum execution layer. He discusses why new specifications are needed and how they will impact future governance processes.

Ethereum Magicians Protocol Roadmap Session

Join us for a conversation with protocol developers, researchers and more covering learnings from The Merge, potential future changes to the Ethereum protocol & its governance process, and lightning talks on proposed Core EIPs. Find overview agenda in ETH Magicians post https://ethereum-magicians.org/t/ethereum-magicians-protocol-roadmap-session-devcon-vi/10866

How to Ethically Build Public Good Infrastructure

We at Status have been working to enable an interface to Web3 since our inception. We bought into the principles of this ecosystem, and have spent extraordinary effort to not compromise on those ethics while we continue to create applications that are easily accessible while also maintaining our user's rights. This talk is an overview of this journey, lessons learned, the fruits of this labor, why we're doubling down on this process, and why you should to.

How to use Executable Consensus Pyspec

Ethereum consensus pyspec (https://github.com/ethereum/consensus-specs) is an executable specification that serves as a reference for consensus layer devs. It is also used for creating the test case vectors for client teams. In this lightning talk, we will have a tutorial on how to run the Ethereum consensus pyspec. And bonus, learn how to write a test by yourself!

Hybrid PBS from CL's Perspective

The talk seeks to address the following questions: - Why does PBS matter from CL's point of view? What happens if we completely ignore it on the protocol layer? What if we wait to release it? - How did we implement hybrid PBS on CL clients from history to functional products? - What do they look like in code? - What are the gotchas and the trade-offs? - What are the remaining questions we shall seek before moving to full PBS?

Killing ETH - Finding Consensus Issues on Layer 1

Ethereum's core protocol is highly security critical and thus needs to be tested thoroughly. This talk will discuss the testing methods we use to make sure that all execution layer clients implement the same protocol: - Regression testing on hive - EVM-fuzzing - Devnets - Shadow forks We will discuss a bunch of interesting issues that we found with that

Light Client Self Led Session

tbd

Light Clients After the Merge

The merge unlocks a new era of truly light clients that can stay in sync with the Ethereum network using just 20 bytes / second. All obtained data can be verified in a trust-minimized manner, reducing the risk of a rogue centralized API provider serving incorrect data. This talk describes the latest advancements in CL light client protocols.

Lodestar: Metrics-Driven Development

Lodestar is the newest production-ready consensus client, written entirely in TypeScript. How did we do it? How did we go from buggy, slow, and scared to agile, confident chads? Metrics, metrics, metrics! We will introduce the concept of metrics-driven development in the context of blockchain node development and give fun examples where metrics saved our hide, time and time again.

MEV for the Next Billion: It's Time to Get Serious...

We will take a birds-eye view of research, industry, and L1 developments on MEV. We start with the reasons behind the origins of MEV, a years-old warnings to developers. We revisit these against an explosion of research and industry interest in MEV. We cover the big picture of why these topics, including PBS, MEV auctions, MEV ethics, "fair ordering", cryptography, etc. are key to the decentralization and UX of L1. We will attempt to provide a roadmap to avoid the centralizing effects of MEV.

Post-Merge Ethereum Client Architecture

Take a look at the key components of a post-merge Ethereum "node" and how they fit together, encompassing both the consensus and execution clients. How do the two clients work together? What impact does the different designs of clients have on that? And what opportunities are there for execution and consensus clients to work together better in the future? Let's break down the knowledge silos between consensus and execution layers to get the most out of merged future of Ethereum.

Quest for the Best Tests, a Retrospective on #TestingTheMerge

A retrospective on #TestingTheMerge and all the various testing avenues we explored. I'd also give a brief summary of what went right and wrong in our approach.

Reducing Beacon Chain Bandwidth for Institutional and Home Stakers

This talk gives an overview of the networking infrastructure of beacon nodes and details some of the recent research being done significantly reduce the growing bandwidth requirements of the Ethereum consensus layer. In particular, we will discuss the network requirements of gossipsub, how long-lived subnets can be the cause and a potential solution to high bandwidth usage as well as preliminary results from experiments with an experimental extension to the gossipsub protocol, episub.

Social Slashing

Censorship resistance is not a property of the protocol, it is a property of the community. The Ethereum community controls one of the most powerful tools in the crypto universe to combat censorship—but no one currently knows exactly how to use it. Swing by this talk to prepare yourself. What's at stake? Everything.

Stateless Ethereum: How Verkle Trees Make Ethereum Lean and Mean

This talk goes over the changes brought by verkle trees. It will give a high-level overview of the technical changes, an update on the implementation of verkle trees, and paint a picture of a stateless Ethereum.

The KZG Ceremony - or How I Learnt to Stop Worrying and Love Trusted Setups

Danksharding, ProtoDanksharding, & EIP4844 make use of KZG commitments which require a trusted setup. As usual, Ethereum does this differently by having an order of magnitude more participants than previous trusted setups. I will be running through why the trusted setup is needed, how it works, and why you should trust it.

The Portal Network

The Portal Network is the culmination of five years of development and research targeting lightweight access to the Ethereum Protocol. Learn what the Portal Network is, how it works, and what it will mean for Ethereum to have a reliable decentralized network tailor made for end users to interact with the Ethereum protocol.

What Alternative Blockchains Compatibility with Ethereum Tooling Can Teach Us About Ethereum's Future

In this talk the various techniques that some L1s and L2s use to provide EVM and RPC compatibility with end user and developer tooling will be examined. Special attention will be paid to features (address aliasing and expansion, RPC handing of system contracts, account abstraction) of other blockchains that Ethereum developers have discussed with an eye towards the compatibility issues they introduce.