Ethereal news weekly #11

BlackRock BUIDL tradeable via UniswapX, ENS staying on mainnet, Solidity developer survey

Ecosystem

• Vitalik’s updated view of Ethereum x AI: build trustless/private AI tooling, Ethereum as AI economic layer, make cypherpunk vision reality & make better markets/governance
• Devcon: propose country/city for next location, deadline March 15
• EF Offstage (builder stories): Danny Ryan interview [video]
• ETH metrics:
  • Gas (gwei): 0.2 average, 0.0 - 4.0 (12.4 for zero net issuance)
  • ETH supply change: 18.7k net issuance
  • ETHUSD: $1,907 - $2,131 (all time high $4,946, August 24, 2025)
  • ETH ETFs: 5% of ETH supply
  • ETHBTC: 0.029 (0.166 for the Flippening)

Sponsor: Consensys

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Enterprise

• BlackRock BUIDL tradeable via UniswapX (through Securitize), alongside strategic investment in Uniswap ecosystem
• Robinhood Chain (Arbitrum L2) public testnet
• Stripe machine payments (preview): x402 support using USDC on Base

Applications

• ENS staying on mainnet due to L1 scaling, ENSv2 to be deployed on mainnet & Namechain (L2) development stopped
• Aave Labs proposal: ratify v4, Aave branded product revenue goes to DAO treasury, new foundation to hold Aave trademarks & requests ongoing funding for Labs
• Spark Prime: CeDeFi margin lending for institutional borrowers
• Ondo Finance tokenized stocks available for use as collateral in DeFi
• MetaLeX cyberSign: sign legal agreements on mainnet, Base & Arbitrum
• Base app:
  • Leaderboards: mini apps by weekly transacting users
  • Talk feed removed & creator rewards sunset

Developers

• Solidity developer survey, takes ~5 minutes to complete, opt in to win Devcon ticket
• EVM storage chronicle (web tool): adds Vyper support to transaction & storage explorer
• Optimism liveness module for Safe, ownership transfers to fallback owner if multisig fails challenge
• Base builder codes: transaction attribution using ERC8021 (data suffix appended to transaction calldata)
• Agents & wallets:
  • Sign In With Agent (SIWA): sign via keyring proxy, agent doesn’t see private key, implements ERC8004 & ERC8128
  • Coinbase agentic wallets: session caps & transaction limits, private key remains in Coinbase infrastructure
  • BankrWallet (browser wallet): agents have separate password & can’t export private key
• EF dAI team: register MCP server using ERC8004
• RareSkills: formal verification with Certora
• CTF:
  • Certora Capture the Funds endless edition, $1k prize for beating current score by 25 ETH
• Application layer standards (ERCs):
  • ERC8152: Content-addressable logic modules
  • ERC8153: Facet-based diamonds
  • ERC8154: Multichain agents & agent relationships
  • ERC8155: Kernel-orchestrated modular contracts
  • ERC8156: Agent onchain metadata (for ERC8004)
  • ERC8157: Accept pre-approved tip amounts
  • ERC8160: Primary agent registry

Security

• Security Alliance (SEAL):
  • SEAL Safe Harbor v3.0: enhanced clarity on good faith actions, clearer protections, updated adoption guidance & independently reviewed by Cyfrin
  • TheDAO Security Fund allocating 133.7 ETH + 0.1337 ETH per day to SEAL 911 & 69 ETH + 0.069 ETH per day to SEAL
  • EF sponsoring SEAL Intel security engineer to track & neutralize drainers
• SolidityGuard: contract security scanner (Solidity & Vyper); CLI, desktop or web; integrates Slither, Mythril, Echidna, Aderyn, Foundry, Medusa, Halmos & Certora

All core devs (main protocol calls)

All core devs - execution (ACDE) #230

• Glamsterdam upgrade (targeting mid-2026):
  • bal-devnet-3 scope: eth_simulateV1, EIP8037 state creation cost, EIP7954 contract size & EIP7975 eth/70 - partial block receipt lists (testing on separate devnet. needed for 83M+ gas limit)
  • EIP8159 eth/71 - Block access list exchange (add to future devnet)
• Hegotá upgrade (targeting late-2026)
  • Proposed headliners (execution layer):
    • LUCID encrypted transaction pool: presented, breakout February 18
    • EIP8141 frame transaction: execution spec implementation & tests in progress
    • EIP8105 encrypted transaction pool
    • EIP7807 SSZ execution blocks
    • Client teams to writeup headliner preferences (including option of no execution layer headliner) for next ACDE with decision at ACDE after that

All core devs - testing (ACDT) #69

• Glamsterdam upgrade (targeting mid-2026):
  • bal-devnet-2 (spec) live
  • Gas repricing final numbers expected end of March
• ethPandaOps Benchmarkoor: tool for benchmarking execution layer clients

Layer 1

• Glamsterdam upgrade (targeting mid-2026):
  • EIP7928 Block-level Access Lists breakout #12
• Hegotá upgrade (targeting late-2026):
  • EIP7805 FOCIL breakout #28
  • Quick slots proposed as non-headliner: remove 12 second slot assumption, find bottlenecks & iteratively reduce slot time
• ethPandaOps EVM gas profiling: The Lab (website) adds gas profiler & gas repricing simulator; execution trace data added to Xatu dataset
• L1-zkEVM:
  • L1-zkEVM breakout #1: notes
  • zkEVM security sprint update
• Stateless implementers call #48
• Ethereum improvement proposals (EIPs):
  • EIP8151: Private key deactivation aware ecrecover
  • EIP8158: Invariant layout guard opcode
  • EIP8159: eth/71 - Block access list exchange

Research

• ZK API usage credits: deposit once & make API calls without linking identity, double-signaling can have stake claimed and policy abusers stake can be slashed
• Linearly-homomorphic signatures for RLNC, avoid sending full blocks during propagation

Staking

• Client diversity:
  • Consensus layer: Lighthouse ~50% (data may not be accurate)
  • Execution layer: Geth ~41%, Nethermind ~38% (estimated from self reports)
• Staking marketshare: Lido 23.5% [Note: dual governance]
• Validators: 966k active (target 128k)
  • EF Protocol Support: validator consolidation progress
    • 0x02 credentials: ~1% of validators, ~17% of staked ETH, ~700 ETH average balance
    • Barriers to adoption: reward liquidity concerns, batch consolidation increased withdrawal key exposure, migration downtime & prioritization
• Client releases:
  • Consensus layer:
    • Lodestar v1.40.0 (recommended): memory & performance improvements, supernode stability improved; Node v22 no longer supported
    • Teku 26.2.0 (recommended): RocksDB default database & blob custody backfilling improved

Layer 2

• MegaETH (OP Kailua + EigenDA) open to the public
• OP Stack upgrade 18: adds Cannon + Kona fault dispute game type, custom gas token v2 & creator pattern dispute game refactor
• Optimism selects Succinct as first preferred provider for ZK proving on the Superchain, ultimate goal is instant withdrawals

Regulation

• US CFTC Innovation Advisory Committee members, includes Hayden Adams (Uniswap), Brian Armstrong (Coinbase) & Vivek Raman (Etherealize)
• Bprotocol Foundation & Localcoin patent infringement case against Uniswap dismissed

General

• Discord teen-by-default rolling out globally in March, access to age-restricted content may require age verification via video selfie or ID scan
• Péter Szilágyi: extracting a secret from an LLM
• AMM challenge: submit custom AMM design

Editor: @abcoathup
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