Ethereum developers explore EIP 7742 and Pectra upgrades in ACDC Call #144.

As detailed on galaxy.com, on October 17, 2024, Ethereum developers convened via Zoom for the 14th All Core Developers Consensus (ACDC) conference. The meeting, chaired by Ethereum Foundation researcher Alex Stokes, focused on important upgrades and proposals, particularly the inclusion of EIP 7742 in the Pectra update.

Pectra Upgrade and EIP 7742 Discussion

The developers agreed to integrate EIP 7742 into the Pectra upgrade. This proposal aims to dynamically adjust the blob gas limit of the network, potentially increasing both target and maximum capacity. However, concerns have been raised that the inclusion of additional EIPs could lead to potential delays in other Pectra changes becoming active on the mainnet.

Additional discussions centered around Pectra and PeerDAS devnet testing. EF Developer Operations Engineer Barnabas Busa revealed plans to shut down Pectra Devnet 3 given unresolved issues with the Grandine client. The release of Pectra Devnet 4 is dependent on successful local testing of the execution layer client.

Code spec updates

We’ve taken a closer look at the key specifications for the Pectra upgrade, including suggestions like Consensus Specs PR#3900 and PR#3767. Developers decided not to incorporate complex changes due to implementation hurdles. The importance of reviewing EIP 7251 for bug fixes was emphasized along with discussion of adding SSZ support to the Builder API.

Teku developer Mikhail Kalinin pointed out potential major changes in Pectra that could impact application developers and urged them to carefully consider these impacts.

PeerDAS and expansion solutions

The meeting also focused on re-basing the PeerDAS specification on top of the Pectra standard to improve debugging and testing processes. Discussion of the new Engine API specification “engine_getBlobsV1” revealed its potential to increase node upload bandwidth but also improve Blob transaction processing.

Francis Li of Layer-2 Rollup Base suggested adjusting specific gas targets, emphasizing the need to increase blob capacity within Pectra. This was coupled with the widespread implementation of EIP 7742, which facilitates dynamic configuration changes.

Upcoming EIP and Conference Plans

New proposals, EIP 7782 and 7783, were discussed as alternative expansion methods. Concerns have been raised about the impact of these proposals on network bandwidth and ongoing research plans. The ACDC conference held on November 14th was canceled due to the Bangkok Devcon conference, which many developers were scheduled to attend.

This ACDC call highlighted the joint efforts of Ethereum developers to improve network efficiency and scalability through strategic upgrades and proposals.

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