Sepolia testnet Glamsterdam upgrade targeting October 6, Privacy Boost V2 live, BuidlGuidl Learning Lab Ethereum 101
Ecosystem
- Ethereum Foundation:
- Will Corcoran Protocol cluster monthly update:
- Glamsterdam upgrade retro: wins include selecting ePBS & BALs as headliners early & running as separate tracks; misses include not treating gas repricing (particularly EIP8037) as a headliner
- Hegotá upgrade planning: north star is quantum resistance
- Will Corcoran Protocol cluster monthly update:
- Devcon 8:
- Pari Jayanthi (EF) Devcon travel guide
- Dev3pack career fair for women & students, November 6
- Yukon precompile.fast: autoresearch challenge for EIP8200 EVMification (replace precompiles with bytecode, lowers barrier for zkEVMs), reduce gas of MODEXP & RIPEMD bytecode
- ETH metrics:
- Gas (gwei): 0.1 average, 0 - 2.1 (13.4 for zero net issuance)
- ETH supply: 122M, 20k net issuance
- ETHUSD: $2,357 - $2,544 (all time high $4,946, August 24, 2025)
- ETHBTC: 0.031 (0.166 for the Flippening)
Sponsor: MetaMask
MetaMask Crypto Security Report: August 2026
Featuring the Coldcard hardware wallet exploit traced to a five-year-old firmware flaw, Bybit’s precedent-setting civil lawsuit against the Lazarus Group, Ethereum Foundation’s post-quantum migration plans, and Trezor’s shipping provider data breach.
MetaMask Crypto Security Report: August 2026.
Applications
- Privacy Boost V2 live on Base, OP Mainnet & Soneium; adds support for MPC wallets & Safe multisigs, DeFi (Morpho, Aave & 1inch) and Portal deposit addresses (shield incoming funds)
- Inco Confidential Token (cToken) app & SDK live on Base, wraps ERC20s to shield balances & transfers
Developers
- Remix (IDE) moving from remix.ethereum.org to app.remix.live, existing users need to migrate workspaces (browser storage can’t be shared by URLs)
- ApeWorX Collective: Python libraries (includes web3.py) major releases, upgraded to uv (package manager) & Ruff (linter & formatter), supports active Python versions
- BuidlGuidl:
- Learning Lab Ethereum 101 (beginners): browser based lab with AI tutor, create & deploy crowdfunding contract, alpha
- Agents arena: 10 agents raced to complete a dozen Solidity challenges, top 3 all Codex CLI + GPT-5.5
- World ProveKit v1 (toolkit): client side zero knowledge proving
- EthSystems rotortree (library): durable append only Merkle tree for note commitments in shielded pools
- Paul Miller noble cryptography website: adds interactive demos
- Application layer standards (ERCs):
Agents
- Etherscan API MCP, CLI & Skills (orchestrator, contract review, transaction debugger & money flow tracing)
Security
- Moonwell MAMO market exploit on Base via collateral accounting inflation & oracle price manipulation, ~$6.8M net drain & ~$9.1M shortfall
- Balancer legacy v1 contract bug allows draining LP funds, pools are deprecated & non pausable
- Security Alliance (SEAL): developer targeted intrusions
All core devs (main protocol calls)
All core devs - consensus (ACDC) #186
- Glamsterdam upgrade (targeting 2026):
- PlatĂĄberget (glamsterdam-devnet-8): block hash with same parent block hash caused halt; consensus-specs v1.7.0-beta.0: adds reject bids with block hash equal to parent
- glamsterdam-devnet-9: non finality devnet launched, issues & edge cases found
- glamsterdam-devnet-10: targeting next week, test for clean upgrade transition
- Public testnets: Sepolia targeting October 6
- EIP8037: agreed cross frame state gas fix
- Engine API SSZ spec merged
- Hegotá upgrade (targeting 2027):
- Consensus layer client preferences due before next ACDC
All core devs - testing (ACDT) #94 + consensus layer breakout
- Glamsterdam upgrade (targeting 2026):
- Sepolia testnet shadow fork: planned to test snap/2
- EIP8037: rejected proposed state gas refill for ephemeral contracts via self destruct
Layer 1
- Glamsterdam upgrade (targeting 2026):
- Feel Your Protocol: EIP7708 ETH transfers emit a log interactive explainer
- Hegotá upgrade (targeting 2027):
- Account abstraction breakout #3: weekly calls, ethrex Frames devnet live, frames-devnet-0 targeting ~1 week
- FOCIL breakout #41: focil-devnet-0 launch after successful local interop
- Potuz (Prysm): faster blocks via chunked broadcast
- Ethereum improvement proposals (EIPs):
- EIP8408: eth/73 - indexed cell requests
Research
- pcaversaccio (EF board): discussion on formally verifying clients, long term goal to formally verify client changes before network upgrades
Staking
- EthStaker ethstaker-deposit-cli v1.3.1 prerelease: adds PlatĂĄberget devnet
- Validator operations standard (ValOS), best practices to identify, assess & mitigate risks
- Client diversity:
- Consensus layer: Lighthouse ~51% (data may not be accurate)
- Staking market share: Lido 21% [Note: dual governance]
- Validators: 906k active (target 128k), 18k accumulating (0x02 withdrawal credentials)
- Client releases:
- Consensus layer:
- ChainSafe Lodestar v1.47.0 (recommended): BLS operations moved to Zig & fixes libp2p bug that prevented graceful shutdown
- Status Nimbus v26.8.0 (medium): additional beacon API support, QUIC gossip enabled (default UDP port 9001) & adds PlatĂĄberget devnet
- Execution layer:
- Besu 26.8.1 (ASAP): 6 security fixes
- Paradigm Reth v2.5.2 (high): maintenance release
- Consensus layer:
Layer 2
- ZKsync EraVM security measures: recommends chains increase execution delay & run independent second node; delays publication of Era code by 3 months, renames emergency upgrades to instant upgrades & adds second proving system; EraVM execution environment to be retired; funds in contracts will require action
- Arbitrum Nova 90 day migration window concluded, transitioning to minimized state, migration still possible but with fewer bridging solutions
Regulation
- US SEC transfer agent rule proposal: modernize rules, includes use of blockchain based recordkeeping, 60 day comment period
General
- Trezor (hardware wallet) additional ~67k US customers data exposed in ShipMonk (shipping provider) data breach, orders between November 2019 & August 2021
- KrebsOnSecurity: 153M US & Canadian drivers licences for sale, allegedly sourced from ID verification vendor
- X password recovery attack disrupted
Editor: @abcoathup
Permalink: ethereal.news/ethereal-news-weekly-38/
Markdown: ethereal.news/ethereal-news-weekly-38.md