Ethereum Developers Discuss Pectra Upgrade and Quantum Resistance in Latest ACDE Call

On
August
1,
2024,
Ethereum
protocol
developers
convened
virtually
for
the
All
Core
Developers
Execution
(ACDE)
Call
#193,
chaired
by
Ethereum
Foundation
(EF)
Protocol
Support
Lead
Tim
Beiko,
according
to

galaxy.com.
These
bi-weekly
meetings
serve
as
a
platform
for
developers
to
discuss
and
coordinate
changes
to
Ethereum’s
execution
layer
(EL).

Pectra
Devnet
2

During
the
call,
developers
shared
updates
on
the
Pectra
upgrade,
focusing
on
the
ongoing
bug
fixes
in
Pectra
Devnet
2.
The
EF
DevOps
team
had
relaunched
Pectra
Devnet
2
on
July
30,
following
issues
with
EIP
7702
transactions
that
caused
chain
splits
in
the
initial
version.
Developers
decided
to
exclude
EIP
7702
from
the
current
test
but
plan
to
reintroduce
it
in
Devnet
3.

Notable
issues
were
discussed,
including
a
block
production
problem
with
the
Erigon
client,
which
has
since
been
resolved.
Prysm
and
Reth
clients
also
faced
issues
that
are
currently
under
investigation.
Independent
developer
Danno
Ferrin
suggested
testing
EOF
code
changes
on
Kurtosis
before
adding
them
to
Pectra
devnets.

EIP
7702

EIP
7702,
designed
to
enhance
programmability
for
externally
owned
accounts
(EOA),
was
another
key
topic.
Developers
agreed
to
keep
the
current
design
unchanged
but
noted
potential
minor
adjustments
once
EOF
code
changes
are
further
along.
EIP
7702
is
set
to
be
included
in
the
next
Pectra
devnet.

EIP
6110

Geth
developer
“Felix”
proposed
serializing
validator
deposit
requests
using
Simple
Serialize
(SSZ)
instead
of
recursive-length
prefix
(RLP)
serialization
to
reduce
protocol
complexity.
While
some
developers
preferred
to
continue
using
JSON
encoding,
there
was
consensus
on
eventually
transitioning
to
SSZ.

Engine
API
Specification
for
“engine_getBlobsV1”

The
Engine
API’s
new
“getBlobsV1”
method,
which
allows
consensus
layer
(CL)
clients
to
fetch
blobs
from
the
EL
blob
transaction
mempool,
was
discussed.
Developers
highlighted
the
need
to
specify
behaviors
to
prevent
misuse
and
suggested
revisiting
this
topic
in
the
next
ACDC
call.

EIP
7212

EIP
7212,
a
precompiled
contract
for
signature
verification
in
the
“secp256r1”
elliptic
curve,
was
debated
for
inclusion
in
Pectra.
Despite
broad
support,
developers
decided
to
postpone
its
inclusion
until
other
Pectra
EIPs
are
more
advanced
in
testing.
Additional
test
coverage
was
recommended
to
support
its
future
inclusion.

Quantum
Resistance
Attacks

Erigon
developer
Andrew
Ashikhmin
raised
concerns
about
the
potential
impact
of
quantum
computers
on
Ethereum’s
cryptography,
referencing
Vitalik
Buterin’s
recent
talk
at
EthCC.
Developers
discussed
the
need
to
consider
quantum-resistant
cryptographic
methods,
especially
in
light
of
the
upcoming
Verkle
transition.

EF
Researcher
Joshua
Rudolf
suggested
separating
discussions
on
quantum
resistance
and
optimal
data
structures.
Beiko
recommended
continuing
these
discussions
in
specialized
breakout
calls
and
the
Ethereum
R&D
Discord
channel.

EIP
7736

Nethermind
developer
Wei
Han
Ng
introduced
EIP
7736
for
state
expiry,
which
could
be
integrated
with
the
Verkle
transition.
This
proposal
aims
to
slow
the
growth
of
Ethereum’s
state
by
introducing
new
transaction
types
and
constants
to
track
active
and
expired
state
parts.

EIP
4444

EF
Developers
Operations
Engineer
Parithosh
Jayanthi
provided
updates
on
EIP
4444,
which
proposes
using
torrents
for
retrieving
expired
Ethereum
history
data.
Developers
were
encouraged
to
review
and
provide
feedback
on
this
proposal.

Image
source:
Shutterstock