Research Summary
The report discusses the Paradigm Reth team’s views on the Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) that should be included in the upcoming Prague hard fork, following Ethereum’s Cancun hard fork. The team also outlines their plans for Ethereum Layer (EL) Core Development in 2024.
Key Takeaways
Prague Hard Fork Timeline and EIPs
- Expected Timeline: The report suggests that the Prague hard fork could be implemented on Ethereum testnets by Q3 2024 and on the mainnet by the end of the year.
- Recommended EIPs: The team recommends including any staking-related EIPs, such as EIP-7002, which enables re-staking and trustless staking pools, and isolated Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) changes.
Supported EIPs
- EIP-7002: This EIP allows smart contracts on the EL side to control one or more validators on the Consensus Layer (CL) side, enabling trustless re-staking and staking pools.
- EIP-6110: This EIP introduces deposits in the EL State, simplifying the state management that needs to be done on the CL.
- EIP-2537: This EIP exposes the BLS12-381 curve’s verification algorithm over the precompile interface, a frequently used curve in many SNARKs, BLS signing algorithms, and EIP-4844.
Unsupported EIPs
- Verkle Tries: The team does not support the inclusion of Verkle Tries in the Prague hard fork, but suggests that client teams start working towards it in Q2 2024 for deployment in the Osaka hard fork in mid/late 2025.
- L1 Gas Limit: The team does not recommend increasing the L1 Execution Gas Limit or contract size, but invites collaboration on investigating the impact on the network.
Account Abstraction
- Need for More Testing: The team believes that Wallet/Account Abstraction EIPs need more testing against each other to better understand the tradeoff space. If they are not mutually exclusive, the team would be open to deploying multiple Account Abstraction-related EIPs in the future.
Actionable Insights
- Investigate EIP-7002: Given the team’s support for EIP-7002, it may be beneficial to further explore the potential impact of this EIP on Ethereum’s staking ecosystem.
- Monitor Verkle Tries Development: As Verkle Tries are not recommended for the Prague hard fork but are suggested for the Osaka hard fork, it would be useful to keep an eye on the development and testing of this feature.
- Assess Impact of EIP-6110 and EIP-2537: Given the team’s support for these EIPs, further research into their potential impact on Ethereum’s state management and verification algorithms could be beneficial.
- Understand Account Abstraction Tradeoffs: The team’s call for more testing of Account Abstraction EIPs suggests a need to better understand the tradeoffs and potential impacts of these proposals.
