From Shadow Forks to Mainnet 🗺

One year after the first Rayonism prototypes, we now have robust merge implementations across all Ethereum clients.

The path from where we are today to fully transitioning Ethereum to proof-of-stake is now clearly in sight. We need:

• [ ] A few mainnet Shadow Forks without issues
• [ ] Clients passing the various merge test suites
• [ ] Smooth deployments across existing public testnets

Welcome to another AllCoreDevs update... better late than never 🙈!

TL;DR 👀

So much has happened since January that I've struggled to find the time to write it down! Here are the highlights:

• Kiln, the latest merge testnet, has launched. The PoS transition on it revealed some implementation issues, and now it's all hands on deck for merge testing 🛠
• Shanghai, the next Ethereum upgrade, is being sketched out. EVM upgrades, Beacon Chain Withdrawals, L2 Fee Reductions and more are planned 🌃
• Work on an executable spec for Ethereum's execution layer is progressing nicely. Next step: harmonizing the EL + CL upgrade processes 📜
• Protocol Guild, an initiative to provide client developers and researchers with token-based compensation, now has over 100 members and is launching a pilot soon 💰

TL;DR 👀

This update comes a bit later than I would have liked. A lot has happened since the last one! Here are the highlights:

• Kintsugi was launched: you can now test post-merge Ethereum on it 🍵
• We found a couple issues on the network, leading to refinements in the spec 🐞
• Once clients have those fixes, and a new auth mechanism, another round of devnets will be launched 🚨
• Applications should start testing deployments on Kintsugi now. Its next version, Kiln, will be the dress rehearsal before existing testnets transition 🏗
• We have a community call in a few weeks to discuss all this 📣
• Shanghai is slowly being planned, with a focus on valuable EIPs which had been deprioritized, along with beacon chain withdrawals 🏧

Welcome to another AllCoreDevs update 👋🏻

TL;DR 👀

• Arrow Glacier is happening next week - upgrade your nodes 🏔

• Kintsugi Merge devnets are being stood up - expect a long-lived one for the holidays 🍵

• A new proposal, EIP-4488, could make rollup transactions cheaper, but there are tradeoffs. A deep dive on this below 👇🏻

90% Merge, 10% Bomb 💣

As promised in the previous update, this one will cover the post-merge Ethereum client architecture in depth. With the progress made during the Amphora Interop event, the specification is now close to final 🎉

Before we dive into The Merge, though, a short update on the difficulty bomb!

Welcome to another AllCoreDevs update 👋🏻

This one is a bit different from the others. First, I’ve decided to move these to Mirror! Using the platform for the 1559 NFT project was a really positive experience, and I’ve been looking for an excuse to use it again, so here we are. I’ll keep maintaining a list of updates on HackMD so they re easy to find in one place.

Second, given our current focus on The Merge, this post isn’t an “update” but a deep dive into the roadmap evolution which led to the current architecture choice. In a few weeks, expect a similar post going over the details of how the Ethereum network will operate post-merge.