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Ethereal news weekly #15

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US DoJ seeks Roman Storm retrial, BlackRock staked ETH ETF live, EF bug bounty $1M max payout

Ecosystem

MetaMask

MetaMask is joining the Synthesis agent hackathon. 🤖

Agents register with their own identity, build, compete, and get evaluated by both agentic judges and humans.

Build agentic apps with the world’s leading self-custodial crypto wallet using advanced permissions and the Smart Accounts Kit.

The Synthesis hackathon starts March 13.

Register now: synthesis.md

Enterprise

  • BlackRock staked ETH ETF (ETHB) live
  • Nasdaq to launch equity token design, partnering with Payward (Kraken parent) to connect xStocks, targeting H1 2027
  • Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE parent) invests in OKX, will license spot crypto prices & launch US regulated futures
  • Mastercard crypto partner program: collaboration with 85 crypto projects, payment providers & financial institutions

Applications

  • on.eth chain metadata registry: enables interoperable names e.g. vitalik.eth@base; registered chains: mainnet, Arbitrum One, Base & OP Mainnet
  • Aave:
  • Across proposal to convert from a DAO to a private company
  • POAP (Proof of Attendance Protocol) going into maintenance mode, no new issuers from March 16
  • Gitcoin proposal to replace Gitcoin grants with single domain campaign per year & monthly subdomain campaigns
  • .eth leaderboard: X accounts with .eth names by follower count

Developers

  • Solidity v0.8.35-pre.1 (language): experimental mode enabled by flag and recorded in JSON & CBOR metadata
  • Trail of Bits: ERC4337 smart account vulnerability patterns
  • Hardhat v3.1.12 (dev framework): adds function gas snapshots & snapshot cheatcodes in Solidity tests
  • Nethereum 6 (.NET client library): adds in process node, dev network with SQLite persistence & multinode app chain, account abstraction, block explorer, multiprovider storage & .NET Aspire orchestration
  • Wighawag purgatory: local transaction pool proxy
  • Base App web apps migrating from Farcaster mini-app tooling
  • BuidlGuidl: shifting to AI native developer stack, Scaffold-ETH: agent first docs, skills rather than scripts & AI-assisted code review; Speedrun Ethereum: per challenge context file & AI teacher mode
  • Application layer standards (ERCs):
    • ERC8187: Token puller
    • ERC8190: Payment channels with signed vouchers
    • ERC8191: Onchain recurring payments
    • ERC8192: Mandated execution for tokenized vaults
    • ERC8193: OAuth with Ethereum

Agents

Security

All core devs (main protocol calls)

All core devs - execution (ACDE) #232

  • Glamsterdam upgrade (targeting mid-2026):
    • bal-devnet-3 (spec): launch delayed, complexity concerns for EIP8037 state creation gas cost increase
  • Hegotá upgrade (targeting late-2026):
    • Headliner (execution layer):
      • Decide headliner at next ACDE, default is no headliner
      • EIP8141 Frame transactions is only remaining candidate, Geth & Erigon support, to be selected would need additional teams to support
      • Declined for Inclusion: EIP8184 LUCID encrypted transaction pool & EIP7807 SSZ execution blocks

All core devs - testing (ACDT) #73

Layer 1

  • Glamsterdam upgrade (targeting mid-2026):
  • Hegotá upgrade (targeting late-2026):
    • EIP7805 FOCIL breakout #30
    • Binary SSZ for Engine API: proposal to add optional SSZ encoding, getPayload takes 5-36ms with SSZ compared to 63-446ms with JSON
    • Snap v2: proposal to replace snap sync trie healing phase using state diffs from Block-Level Access Lists
  • L1-zkEVM breakout #2
  • Ethereum improvement proposals (EIPs):
    • EIP8188: Tiered state write pricing
    • EIP8189: snap/2 - BAL-based state healing

Staking

  • Client diversity:
    • Consensus layer: Lighthouse ~51% (data may not be accurate)
    • Execution layer: Geth ~41%, Nethermind ~38% (estimated from self reports)
    • Lido Q4 metrics: Lighthouse 28% & Simple DVT: Nethermind 55% & CSM: Nethermind 60%
  • Staking marketshare: Lido 23% [Note: dual governance]
  • Validators: 950k active (target 128k)
  • Teku SSZ serialization post mortem, nodes couldn’t save state to disk
  • Client releases:
    • Consensus layer:
      • Grandine 2.0.3 (high): security fixes & performance optimizations
      • Lighthouse v8.1.2 (high): patch with security-critical fixes
    • Execution layer:
      • Besu 26.2.0 (recommended): chain pruning CLI options redesigned & EVM performance optimizations
      • Erigon v3.3.9: smoother transaction pool, improved peer discovery & enhanced RPC reliability
      • Reth v1.11.3 (high): fix panic in sparse trie proof workers

Layer 2

Regulation

General

Ethereal news weekly #14