Layla Zulfa
Keeping pace with the rapid evolution of Ethereum’s core development, particularly the intricate discussions during All Core Developer (ACD) calls, presents a continuous challenge for the community. The "Checkpoint" series serves as a vital resource, providing periodic, high-level summaries of ongoing progress and pivotal decisions shaping the network’s future. The latest update sheds light on the trajectory of two significant upcoming upgrades: Glamsterdam and Hegotá, revealing both anticipated advancements and unforeseen complexities.
The Road Ahead: Glamsterdam’s Steady but Challenging Path
The Glamsterdam upgrade, Ethereum’s immediate successor to the recent Dencun fork, is currently undergoing active implementation. While progress is described as "slow but steady," the inherent complexities of its headlining features are becoming increasingly apparent to core developers. The most significant of these is the enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation (ePBS), a fundamental architectural shift designed to enhance the network’s resilience against Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) and improve censorship resistance.
ePBS represents a profound transformation of Ethereum’s block production mechanism. Currently, block proposers (validators) often collaborate with external "builders" to construct blocks, a process that occurs outside the protocol’s direct purview. Enshrining PBS means integrating this separation directly into the consensus layer, forcing the protocol itself to manage the coordination, and potential disagreements or failures, between distinct proposer and builder entities. This necessitates a complete re-evaluation of how the network handles "partial blocks" and the complex two-party coordination required, affecting virtually every component of the Ethereum stack. Developers are navigating a labyrinth of technical challenges to ensure seamless integration and robust operation. The sheer scope of this change, from fundamental data structures to client logic, means that every layer of the protocol must be meticulously adapted.
Beyond ePBS, Glamsterdam incorporates several other critical enhancements. A bundle of gas repricings, primarily encapsulated in EIP-8007, aims to optimize transaction costs and resource allocation. Ethereum’s gas mechanism, governed by EIP-1559, dynamically adjusts transaction fees based on network congestion. These repricings are designed to refine the cost model for various operations, such as storage and computation, making the network more efficient and predictable for users and developers. This work is also crucial groundwork for safely enabling higher network throughput in the future.
The community has also voiced strong support for EIP-7954, which proposes an increase to the maximum contract size. The current contract size limit, while intended to prevent denial-of-service attacks and ensure network health, can restrict the development of highly complex decentralized applications (dApps). Ecosystem developers have been "constructively vocal" about this limitation, emphasizing its importance for fostering innovation and enabling more sophisticated on-chain functionalities. Prioritizing EIP-7954 reflects a responsiveness to developer needs, allowing for the deployment of larger, more feature-rich smart contracts.
On the execution layer, Block-level Access Lists (BALs), specified in EIP-7928, are another significant component of Glamsterdam. BALs fundamentally rethink how gas and state access are managed, aiming to provide more predictable gas costs and improve transaction processing efficiency. This involves a deeper understanding of how transactions interact with the network’s state, allowing for more intelligent resource allocation. Developers are making "predictable progress" on BAL devnets, tackling these "expectedly difficult problems" with a systematic approach.
The development roadmap for Glamsterdam involves an iterative process of devnet deployments. The immediate goal is to stabilize the current ePBS devnet, paving the way for the first generalized Glamsterdam devnet in the coming weeks. This will be followed by several more devnets, progressively integrating additional "non-headliner" features. Once a stable devnet encompassing all planned features is achieved, client teams will proceed with client releases, comprehensive security reviews, and deployment on public testnets. Only after these testnets are confirmed stable and reliable will the official mainnet fork date be announced, underscoring the rigorous and cautious approach to Ethereum’s protocol upgrades.
Hegotá: FOCIL Takes the Lead, Account Abstraction Remains a Priority
Looking beyond Glamsterdam, the subsequent upgrade, tentatively named Hegotá, has already identified its primary feature: FOCIL (EIP-7805). This consensus layer headliner is designed to enhance data availability sampling, a critical component of Ethereum’s sharding roadmap, particularly in the context of Danksharding. FOCIL aims to improve the efficiency and reliability with which data shards can be sampled, thereby bolstering the network’s scalability and enabling higher transaction throughput in the long term. Its selection signifies a continued focus on addressing Ethereum’s scalability challenges as outlined in the "roadmap."
While FOCIL takes the lead on the consensus layer, the execution layer witnessed an extensive debate surrounding Account Abstraction (AA). A specific proposal, EIP-8141, known as "Frame transactions," was hotly discussed. Account Abstraction is a long-sought-after feature in the Ethereum community, promising a revolution in user experience by enabling smart contract wallets to function like externally owned accounts (EOAs). This would unlock capabilities such as social recovery, multi-signature transactions without custom contracts, and customizable signature schemes, making the network more accessible and user-friendly. Despite strong community interest, a "lack of consensus over specific implementation choices" led to EIP-8141 being moved to "Considered for Inclusion (CFI)" status as a non-headliner. This decision, however, comes with a firm "placeholder commitment" to continue working on an Account Abstraction proposal that garners broader support among client developers and the wider community. This reflects the decentralized and deliberative nature of Ethereum’s governance, where robust consensus is prioritized for such impactful changes.
Another emerging area of interest for Hegotá is quantum resistance. With the theoretical advent of quantum computing posing a potential threat to current cryptographic algorithms like ECDSA (used for digital signatures in blockchain), there’s a growing imperative to integrate quantum-resistant solutions. While no standalone quantum resistance proposal has yet been introduced, several Account Abstraction proposals implicitly or explicitly include quantum-resistant features as part of their broader packages. This highlights the strategic thinking within the core development community to future-proof the network against evolving technological threats.
The process for submitting non-headlining features for Hegotá commenced on April 9th, allowing anyone to propose an EIP by incorporating it into the upgrade’s meta EIP (EIP-8081). The closing date for these submissions will be announced at least two weeks in advance, fostering an inclusive environment for community contributions to the network’s evolution. The ultimate timeline for Hegotá’s deployment remains intrinsically linked to the progress and stability of Glamsterdam, reinforcing the sequential and interdependent nature of Ethereum’s upgrade cycle.
Enhancing Network Performance: Gas Limit and Developer Resources
A continuous effort within Ethereum’s development ecosystem revolves around increasing the network’s gas limit. This limit dictates the maximum amount of computation that can be included in a single block, directly influencing transaction throughput. Developers are actively testing gas limit increases on various devnets, with a current target baseline of 60 million gas. Moreover, testing is ongoing at significantly higher limits to thoroughly understand the performance implications and identify necessary optimizations. The gas repricing work being implemented in Glamsterdam is a crucial prerequisite for safely enabling these higher limits, ensuring that increased throughput does not compromise network stability or lead to unforeseen issues. The ability to process more transactions per block is a direct pathway to enhanced scalability and potentially lower transaction fees over time.
To streamline the process of contributing to Ethereum’s development, new resources have been published on the Protocol Support team website. The EIP Champion’s Handbook is a comprehensive guide designed to assist authors and advocates in championing feature proposals and effectively soliciting stakeholder feedback. This resource demystifies the intricate EIP (Ethereum Improvement Proposal) process, providing a clear pathway for individuals and teams to contribute their ideas and drive impactful changes to the protocol. It underscores the community-driven ethos at the heart of Ethereum’s development.
Development Pace, Strategic Roadmaps, and Future Outlook
The development pace of Ethereum upgrades is often subject to the inherent complexities of the proposed changes. While previous upgrades, such as Fusaka (likely a typo in the original for Pectra/Electra or some other quickly following upgrade), might have driven excitement about faster release cycles, Glamsterdam is proving to be "trickier and more slow-going than anticipated." This is primarily due to the foundational nature of features like ePBS, which require deep architectural changes rather than mere optimizations. Despite these challenges, client developers are reportedly "not particularly disheartened," demonstrating a steadfast commitment to robust and secure implementation.
The decision to select a single headliner for Hegotá, FOCIL, could potentially enable a shorter timeframe between Glamsterdam and Hegotá, provided the non-headliner selection process proceeds smoothly. However, the possibility remains that a widely supported Account Abstraction proposal could still be promoted to headliner status, reflecting its recognized importance to the community and the broader ecosystem.
Furthermore, the publication of an "unofficial Ethereum roadmap," known as the strawmap, has "reignited enthusiasm" for a guiding framework in the upgrade process. While not a formal mandate, the strawmap serves as a conceptual North Star, helping to inform feature choices and align priorities among core developers and the wider community. This collaborative approach ensures that development efforts are channeled towards achieving Ethereum’s long-term vision of scalability, security, and sustainability.
In conclusion, Ethereum’s development trajectory, as evidenced by the progress on Glamsterdam and the planning for Hegotá, reflects a meticulous and community-driven approach to innovation. The current challenges associated with Glamsterdam’s ambitious features underscore the commitment to fundamental architectural improvements. Meanwhile, Hegotá’s focus on scalability and a persistent dedication to user experience through Account Abstraction highlights a balanced strategy for future growth. These ongoing efforts, guided by robust development processes and an engaged community, are crucial in solidifying Ethereum’s position as a leading decentralized platform, continuously pushing the boundaries of blockchain technology.
