New Week In Ethereum 2025-08-15

• 15 August 2025

• The Ethereum core developers have finalized the headliners for the upcoming Glamsterdam upgrade, confirming EIP-7732 (ePBS) as the Consensus Layer headliner and EIP-7928 (Block-Level Access Lists) as the Execution Layer headliner, setting the foundation for the next major network upgrade after Fusaka.

Eth R&D Protocol Call(s)

• All Core Devs - Execution (ACDE) #218, August 14, 2025:

  • Fusaka Devnet-4 progress:
    • Identified and addressed cross-client divergences in blob-fee calculation
    • Improved boot-node diversity to ensure robust peer discovery
    • Standardized fork-boundary rules for consistent client behavior
  • Fusaka timelines:
    • Postponed schedule decisions until Devnet-5 is stable
    • Tentative timeline includes Sepolia and Holesky client releases on September 8, 2025
  • Glamsterdam planning:
    • Confirmed ePBS (EIP-7732) and BAL (EIP-7928) as headliners
    • Dropped EIP-7778 (reducing slot times to six seconds) due to conflicts with BAL design
  • Testing improvements:
    • Strengthened testing discipline for major EIPs before ACD presentations
    • Implemented stress-testing for ModExp repricing and contract-size changes in Devnet-5

• All Core Devs - Consensus (ACDC) #163, August 21, 2025:

  • This call is scheduled for August 21, 2025, and will continue discussions on Fusaka and Glamsterdam upgrades.

Fusaka (Osaka + Fulu) upgrade

• Fusaka Devnet-4 launched on August 8, 2025, with a focus on testing blob throughput, validator behavior, and client stability under elevated load.
• The devnet experienced issues during Blob Parameter Only (BPO) 3 testing, with several execution layer and consensus layer clients facing challenges:
  • Erigon computed blob-fees incorrectly and forked away from other clients
  • Lighthouse and Nimbus faced difficulties in peer discovery due to limited boot-node diversity
• Developers implemented a phased BPO rollout strategy to gradually increase blob capacity:
  • Fusaka starts with a target of 6 blobs and a max of 9
  • BPO1 raises the target to 9 and the max to 14
  • Subsequent phases follow an exponential pattern, ultimately scaling to a max of 72 blobs
• Non-finality testing is being conducted to ensure clients can handle network instability gracefully, with three key test phases:
  • Simulating validator outages by taking down instances of each client
  • Throttling about 30% of the network by reducing bandwidth
  • Splitting the network into two chains and then merging them back

Glamsterdam (Amsterdam–G-Star) Upgrade

• EIP-7732 (ePBS) has been officially selected as the Consensus Layer headliner for Glamsterdam, bringing protocol-level separation of block proposing and building.
• EIP-7928 (Block-Level Access Lists) was confirmed as the Execution Layer headliner, making state access explicit on a per-block basis.
• EIP-7805 (FOCIL) remains under active review as a Considered For Inclusion (CFI) proposal, with developers recognizing its potential but requiring further testing.
• The BAL specification is being refined to include entries for reads such as SLOAD, balance checks, and static calls, adding approximately 50 kB per block to improve auditability.
• Community feedback on Glamsterdam headliners was gathered via Ethereum Magicians and synthesized into a detailed report.

Layer 1

• A new Beacon API for blobs has been proposed to decouple blob data access from other beacon node responsibilities, reducing processing load and allowing blob consumers to fetch only what they need.
• Slot timing specification changes are being implemented to replace hardcoded constants with slot timing components defined in basis points, enabling more flexible experimentation with different slot durations.
• Block propagation metrics have shown significant improvement, with blocks now consistently propagating in under 1 second, and the 95th percentile delay for attestations improving from 2.52 seconds to 1.85 seconds.
• The "Safe-Head" proposal is being discussed to better expose fast-confirmation information through APIs, with three approaches under consideration:
  • Repurposing the existing safe block tag to point to the fast-confirmed block
  • Adding a new field such as fastConfirmedBlock hash to the Engine API and JSON-RPC
  • Making the meaning of the safe block configurable per consensus-layer client

Research

• LMD GHOST with ~256 validators and a fast-following finality gadget:

  • New research exploring how to run Ethereum's consensus with a much smaller validator set while maintaining security
  • Proposes a fast-following finality gadget to complement the reduced validator set

• Integrating 3SF with ePBS, FOCIL, and PeerDAS:

  • Explores how Three-Slot Finality (3SF) can be integrated with other upcoming Ethereum protocol improvements
  • Analyzes potential synergies and implementation challenges

• On Ethereum Prover Market Design:

  • Discusses the design of a market for zero-knowledge proof generation
  • Explores economic incentives and mechanisms for efficient proof verification

• Understanding Based Rollups: PGA Challenges, Total Anarchy, and Potential Solutions:

  • Analyzes challenges in based sequencing for Layer 2 rollups
  • Proposes solutions to priority gas auction (PGA) problems in the context of MEV

Layer 2

• Introducing the Kona-Node: Optimism unveiled the Kona-Node, a new Rust-powered implementation for the OP Stack, promising improved performance and reliability for the Superchain ecosystem.

• Protecting ZK-based Rollups against Invalid Proposals: A new proposal addresses a critical security concern for ZK rollups, focusing on preventing invalid state transitions that might pass verification due to implementation bugs.

Stuff for Developers

• EIP-8005: Encrypted Transaction Envelope (ETE) Typed Transaction: A new EIP proposal introduces encrypted transaction envelopes, allowing for private transaction data while maintaining compatibility with existing Ethereum infrastructure.

• All Core Devs - Consensus (ACDC) #163: The upcoming ACDC call agenda was published, focusing on consensus layer improvements and protocol updates.

• All Core Devs - Execution (ACDE) #219: The agenda for the next ACDE call was released, covering execution layer developments and EIPs under consideration.

Security

• Hashrate Heist or Hype?: A claimed 51% attack on Monero by Qubic's $300 million AI project was disputed by community researchers who found the actual hashrate closer to 30%, raising questions about market manipulation.

• Credix Exploit: A compromised admin account at Credix led to a $4.5 million theft through minting worthless acUSDC tokens and borrowing against phantom collateral.

Ecosystem

• Join Us: EF Protocol Reddit AMA - August 29th, 2025: The Ethereum Foundation announced its next Reddit AMA, hosted by the EF Protocol cluster teams, continuing the tradition of direct community engagement.

• Optimism Extends $2 Million Bug Bounty Program: Optimism expanded its bug bounty program to cover proposed protocol upgrades before they go into production, preparing for Superchain interoperability.

Notable at app layer

• ERC-8004: Trustless Agents: A new ERC proposal introduces standards for trustless agent interactions on Ethereum, potentially enabling more sophisticated autonomous applications.

• Liquid Agent Standard (LAS): A proposed standard for liquid agents aims to create more flexible and interoperable autonomous systems within the Ethereum ecosystem.

Centralization watch: threatening the value of your ETH

• 🚨 Lido at 25.84%, still too close to the 33.3% threshold.
• Client diversity (via clientdiversity.org):
  • Execution layer: Geth ~41% & Nethermind ~38%
  • Consensus layer: Lighthouse 42.71% & Prysm 30.91%
  • Any client bug over 33.3% could mean loss of finality.
• Better geographic diversity is optimal, particularly outside of North America & Europe.

Client Releases

• Consensus layer:

  • Lighthouse v1.6.0-alpha.4: Fulu upgrade preparations including commitment deduplication in verify_cell_kzg_proof_batch, improvements to custody groups, and various EIP-7732 updates.

• Execution layer:

  • Geth v1.16.2: Implements Fusaka EIPs including EIP-7825 (Transaction Gas Limit Cap), EIP-7934 (RLP Execution Block Size Limit), EIP-7939 (CLZ opcode), EIP-7918 (Blob base fee bounded by execution cost), and several other optimizations and bug fixes.

EIPs/Standards

• EIPs (Core, Networking, Interface):

  • EIP-7918: Updated Figures 2-5 to reflect BLOB_BASE_COST=2**13 and adjusted the rationale to improve clarity.
  • EIP-7773: Move EIP-7732 and EIP-7928 to SFI, EIP-7792 to DFI.
  • EIP-7732: Update to latest CL-spec version.
  • EIP-7928: Update System Contract Handling.

• ERCs (Application Layer):

  • EIP-7956: Update eip-7956.md.
  • EIP-7932: Move to Draft.
  • New EIP: Ed25519 transaction support.
  • New EIP: Call and Return Opcodes for the EVM.

Onchain Stats

• Fees (via ultrasound.money):
  • Gas: 0.2 to 9.5 gwei, 1.0 gwei average; zero net issuance at 20.5 gwei
  • 2.7k ETH net issuance this week
• ETHUSD: $2507 – $2598, currently $2,582, all time high $4,878
• ETHBTC: currently 0.0236 (Flippening at ~0.165)

Upcoming Dates of Note

• Aug 22-24, 2025: ETHMunich - Ethereum hackathon and conference in Munich, Germany
• Sep 5-7, 2025: ETHWarsaw - Ethereum conference and hackathon in Warsaw, Poland
• Sep 15-17, 2025: ETHSingapore - Ethereum hackathon in Singapore
• Oct 2025: Fusaka Upgrade - Next Ethereum network upgrade with EIP-7825, EIP-7934, EIP-7939, and other improvements
• Nov 18-20, 2025: Devcon 7 - Annual Ethereum developer conference in Bangkok, Thailand

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