Ethereal news weekly #1

Fusaka upgrade live on mainnet, client diversity: Lighthouse 55%, Beacon chain 5th anniversary

🦓 Fusaka upgrade live on mainnet:
- EthStaker watch party recording & POAPs; Song a Day: Ok Fusaka
- Prysm (consensus layer client) issue caused ~20% drop in participation, network recovered after config flag workaround used by affected nodes
- Headliner: EIP7594 PeerDAS, allows 8x blobs as nodes only store 1/8 data
- EIP7892 blob parameter only upgrades (BPOs) increase blobs gradually
  - BPO1: target 10 & max 15 blobs per block (increased from 6/9), December 9
  - BPO2: target 14 & max 21 blobs, January 7, 2026
Client diversity:
- Consensus layer: ⚠️ Lighthouse 55%
- Execution layer: Geth ~41%, Nethermind ~38% (estimated from self reports)
Beacon chain 5th anniversary 🎂
EF Ecosystem Support Program Q3 allocations, 80 projects shared $14.3M
ETH metrics:
- Gas (gwei): 0.1 average, 0.0 - 2.7 (12 for zero net issuance)
- ETHUSD: $2,736 – $3,222 (all time high $4,946, August 24, 2025)
- ETH ETFs: 5% of ETH supply
- ETHBTC: 0.034 (0.165 for the Flippening)

MetaMask Snaps Snaps are apps that customize your wallet experience and let you add new features and functionalities to MetaMask.

Aave x CoW Swap: better prices & MEV protection
Aave voted to remove USDS as collateral
Startale USD (USDSC) stablecoin native to Soneium (Sony Block Solutions Labs rollup)
MetaMask Transaction Shield (subscription): coverage (up to $10k) for transactions deemed safe & priority support, browser extension only
Address.vision POAP display for ENS addresses

Solidity (language)
- v0.8.31:
  - Fusaka support: osaka default EVM version & CLZ opcode
  - Constants in storage layout specifiers
  - Deprecation warnings for address send/transfer, ABI coder v1, virtual modifiers, contract comparison operators & memory safe assembly annotation
- Solidity summit (Devconnect) recordings & slides
Hardhat (dev framework) Fusaka support enabled manually in network config
Ethers.js v6.16.0 (client library): Fusaka support for EIP7594 PeerDAS cell proofs
FloatLib (Solidity/Vyper): high-precision floating-point math library
Enscribe: name contracts with Basenames
Icon registry: mainnet repository of PNG icons
Application layer standards (ERCs):
- ERC8095: Directory of certified smart contracts
- ERC8097: In ground asset token
- ERC8098: Non-increasing supply ERC20

Fusaka upgrade:
- Post upgrade issues: Prysm plan client release & post mortem next week
Glamsterdam upgrade (targeting June 2026):
- Non-headliner scoping: categorized shortlist (from last ACDE)
- Considered for Inclusion:
  - EIP7708 ETH transfers emit a log
  - EIP7778 block gas limit accounting without refunds
  - Opcodes: EIP7843 SLOTNUM & EIP8024 SWAPN, DUPN, EXCHANGE
  - EIP8070 sparse blobpool
- Execution layer non-headliner candidates still to be decided at next ACDE:
  - Repricing core category; contract size increase (EIP2926 chunk-based vs EIP7907 meter & increase); process category (non-protocol changes)
  - Repricing: EIP7971 hard limits for transient storage; EIP8032 size-based storage pricing
  - EIP7903 remove initcode size limit
  - EIP7668 remove bloom filters
- Declined for Inclusion:
  - Repricing: EIP8011 multidimensional metering; EIP8053 & EIP8059 high-precision metering; EIP8057 inter-block temporal locality discounts
  - Opcodes: EIP7791 GAS2ETH; EIP7819 SETDELEGATE; EIP7979 call & return; EIP8013 static relative jumps & calls
  - Cryptography: EIP7619 Falcon512; EIP7932 secondary signature algorithms; EIP8030 P256 transactions
  - Pureth: EIP6404 SSZ transactions; EIP6466 SSZ receipts
Heka + Bogota upgrade
- EIP7805 FOCIL: ACDC to decide whether to set as Scheduled for Inclusion before headliner selection, potentially impacting other candidates e.g. 6 second slots

Gas limit increases:
- 75M next safe level: block receipts could exceed message size cap at ~83M
- 100M possible after implementation/rollout of EIP7975 eth/70 - partial block receipt lists, potentially in late January/February
EIP7872 max blob flag for local builders: ideally include before next phase of BPOs
Engine API proposal to switch to SSZ to reduce time spent decoding JSON, need benchmarks

Fusaka upgrade:
- STEEL mainnet testing: execution layer functionality complete
- ethPandaOps PeerDAS custody monitoring: verifies peers are storing blob data
Heka + Bogotá upgrade:
- EIP7805 FOCIL breakout #24
- Heka + Bogotá portmanteau: signal your favorite
Erigon historical proofs data model, efficient indexing for historical MPT proofs
Lean consensus:
- devnet1 interop with 3 teams
- ethlambda: Rust based Lean consensus client
Protocol Guild Q4 membership update: 23 new members & 14 alumni
ETHClient summit (Devconnect) videos
Ethereum improvement proposals (EIPs)
- EIP8094: eth/vhash - blob-aware mempool
- EIP8096: Increase gas cost of point evaluation
- EIP8099: MEVless protocol
- EIP summit (Devconnect) videos

Staking marketshare: Lido 24.4% [Note: dual governance]
Client releases:
- Consensus layer:
  - Grandine 2.0.1 (medium-priority): performance optimizations & fixes
  - Lodestar v1.37.0 (maintenance): performance fix seen in testnets & validator client option to disable slot skipping for Obol users
  - Nimbus v25.11.1 (high-urgency): improvements & fixes

Etherealize: L2 ecosystem for institutions [PDF]
OP Stack Jovian upgrade: data availability limit to prevent spam & priority fee auctions and configurable minimum base fee (disabled by default)
Linea (ZK rollup) Fusaka upgrade
Aztec (privacy ZK rollup) token for staking, governance & network fees; sale uses Uniswap’s continuous clearing auctions and excludes UK

US House Republicans: operation choke point 2.0, crypto debanking by previous administration
US SEC: Citadel Securities (Ken Griffin) input to tokenized equity trading
UK Property (digital assets) act: crypto & NFTs recognized as personal property

Security Alliance: fake support on Telegram used to deploy crypto drainers
React Server Components remote code execution vulnerability, upgrade to fixed versions
X402hz: payments over sound, proof of concept