Ethereum Developers Discuss Pectra and Future Upgrades in ACDE Call #189

On
June
6,
2024,
Ethereum
protocol
developers
convened
virtually
for
the
All
Core
Developers
Execution
(ACDE)
Call
#189,
chaired
by
Ethereum
Foundation
(EF)
Protocol
Support
Lead
Tim
Beiko.
These
bi-weekly
calls
serve
as
a
platform
for
discussing
and
coordinating
changes
to
Ethereum’s
execution
layer
(EL).
Among
the
key
topics
of
discussion
were
the
inclusion
of
EOF
and
EIP
7702
in
the
upcoming
Pectra
upgrade,
the
deactivation
of
EIP
158,
and
the
integration
of
EIP
4444.

Pectra
Scope

Before
the
call,
various
EL
client
teams
and
the
EF
DevOps
team
shared
their
views
on
the
scope
of
the
Pectra
upgrade.
Most
client
teams
supported
including
EOF
in
Pectra,
except
for
Geth.
Geth
developer
Guillaume
Ballet
expressed
concerns
that
including
EOF
might
delay
the
Verkle
transition.
However,
other
developers,
including
Reth’s
Dragan
Rakita,
argued
that
the
delay
would
be
minimal
and
that
EOF
would
significantly
enhance
the
Ethereum
Virtual
Machine
(EVM).

Beiko
suggested
bundling
EOF
with
other
Pectra
EIPs
for
a
single
client
release
but
recommended
using
devnets
for
staged
testing.
This
approach
would
allow
developers
to
sequence
testing
priorities
and
decide
later
whether
to
split
EOF
out
if
it
causes
significant
delays.

Pectra
Specs

Teku
developer
Mikhail
Kalinin
shared
updates
to
existing
Pectra
EIP
specifications,
including
a
proposal
to
process
EL-triggered
requests
to
the
consensus
layer
(CL)
through
a
sidecar
mechanism.
However,
this
proposal
was
withdrawn
due
to
potential
conflicts
with
future
code
changes
like
enshrined
proposer
builder
separation
(ePBS).

Kalinin
also
proposed
changes
to
EL
and
Engine
API
specifications
for
Pectra,
such
as
enabling
EL-triggered
consolidations
under
EIP
7251.
Beiko
recommended
reviewing
these
changes
before
the
next
ACD
call
to
finalize
them
for
Devnet
1
testing.

Verkle
Prep

Ballet
raised
concerns
about
EIP
158
causing
issues
similar
to
the
deprecated
opcode
SELFDESTRUCT.
To
avoid
complications,
he
proposed
deactivating
EIP
158
in
the
Pectra
upgrade.
Beiko
suggested
drafting
a
proposal
for
this
deactivation
while
considering
the
timing
of
EIP
7702’s
implementation.

History
Expiry

Developers
also
discussed
EIP
4444,
which
aims
to
reduce
block
history
storage
on
nodes
by
removing
non-consensus-critical
data
after
a
certain
period.
The
Portal
Network
was
proposed
as
an
alternative
for
querying
Ethereum
history
data.
Merriam
from
the
Portal
Network
team
offered
support
for
EL
client
teams
integrating
this
network,
emphasizing
the
importance
of
collaboration
for
timely
progress.

ACD
Process
Improvements

Beiko
proposed
several
improvements
to
the
network
upgrade
process.
First,
he
suggested
reducing
the
frequency
of
discussing
topics
that
client
teams
haven’t
reviewed
in
detail.
Instead,
these
topics
should
be
flagged
for
review
first
and
discussed
thoroughly
in
subsequent
calls.
Second,
he
recommended
creating
a
new
label,
“Proposed
for
Inclusion”
(PFI),
to
better
organize
EIPs
likely
to
be
included
in
a
hard
fork.

EF
DevOps
Engineer
Mario
Vega
proposed
creating
a
new
Discord
sub-channel
for
sharing
testing
updates,
consolidating
information
currently
scattered
across
multiple
channels.
Client
teams
were
asked
to
provide
feedback
on
this
proposal.

As
a
closing
note,
Beiko
reminded
developers
of
two
upcoming
breakout
meetings,
one
for
ePBS
on
June
7
and
the
other
for
PeerDAS
on
June
11.
For
further
details,
the
complete
writeup
can
be
accessed
on

Galaxy.com.

Image
source:
Shutterstock

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