Q3 2020 Allocation Insights: A Peek into the Ethereum Foundation’s Strategy

Community & education BlockchainsForSchools Support of BlockchainsForHacks, a creative challenge designed for high school and university students to develop original projects utilizing blockchain technology. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Hubble Ongoing financial support for the development of an optimistic rollup hub that facilitates the formation of any rollup chain by simply writing a solidity function. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Zkopru (zk-optimistic-rollup) Layer-2 enhancement solution for secure transactions employing zk-SNARKs and optimistic rollup. GitHub: https://github.com/zkopru-network/zkopru Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Dark Forest Theoretical gaming study conducted by a cohort of Stanford students utilizing zk-SNARKs to create “incomplete information” scenarios where users maintain a private state while openly submitting verifiable valid actions. Dark Forest was developed to showcase the potential of this framework to foster complex environmental and strategic dynamics in decentralized gaming. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Semaphore RLN Technique for curbing spam in Semaphore, a zero-knowledge tool for confidential proof of membership. RLN (Rate Limiting Nullifier) exposes the private key of an account signaling above a permissible rate, which another participant can utilize to expel them from the group. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs ETH Summer Initiative for students to explore and develop on Ethereum, encompassing contributions to 4byte.directory. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Aztec Continued advancements in PLONK, including the rollout of Ultra-PLONK, which incorporates PLOOKUP gates; the creation of a domain-specific language and compiler; and improvements to the prover. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Blind Find v1 Peer-to-peer network facilitating private peer discovery: one participant can find another through provable pathways among numerous peers without disclosing any details about the connection. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Quadratic Dollar Homepage Smart contracts and web interface for a Quadratic Dollar Homepage, inspired by the Million Dollar Homepage. Users influence the visibility of images on a web page through quadratic voting, employing Minimal Anti-Collusion Infrastructure (MACI) to ensure resistance against collusion. Developer experience & tooling Hardhat Enhancements to Hardhat (previously referred to as Buildler), a development environment tailored for compiling, deploying, testing, and debugging Ethereum software, constructed and overseen by Nomic Labs. Developer experience & tooling formalize.eth A verified compiler transitioning a subset of Vyper to YUL, crafted in Coq. Developer experience & tooling IPLD, Object Signing and Encryption Jointly financed with Protocol Labs: inquiry by Textile and 3box into cryptographic securing of data within IPLD, the linked data framework utilized by IPFS, to facilitate scalable and interactive dapps using both IPFS and Ethereum. Ethereum 1.x Web3 Labs Ongoing upkeep and enhancements to the Web3j library, including management of Solidity library dependencies,smart contract transition assistance, enhancements for the Web3j Solidity debugger, and integration with IntelliJ/Android Studio, as well as Eth2 compatibility. Ethereum 1.x Whiteblock Testing network and exploration to analyze the effects, including uncle rates and block propagation timings, of increased block sizes stemming from the implementation of EIP-1559, a decrease in calldata gas expenses, and/or an elevation in gas limits. Ethereum 1.x OpenEthereum Support and advancement on OpenEthereum, a takeover initiative of the Parity client led by Gnosis. Ethereum 1.x Imapp Assessment, which includes the design and launch of a series of sample applications across different machines, operating systems, and EVMs, aimed at evaluating gas expenses and dependencies for EVM operations, with the purpose of fixing unequal gas costs for EVM commands. Ethereum 2.0 bitfly Ongoing development of beaconcha.in, an open-source eth2 block explorer offering support for eth2 test networks. GitHub link: https://github.com/gobitfly/eth2-beaconchain-explorer Indirect funding MetaCartel DAO Support for a DAO funding microgrants and providing mentorship for post-hackathon and early-stage teams. Indirect funding Gitcoin CLR CLR matching for rounds 6-8. Layer 2 Burn Auction A censorship-free block creation process for Optimistic Rollups, where the right to generate a new block is auctioned to the individual willing to burn the most ETH. Layer 2 State Channels Continued enhancement of State Channels, encompassing auditing, server wallet development, SDK, improved documentation, and mainnet deployment. Layer 2 Fuel Labs Further development of the Fuel optimistic rollup. Layer 2 Connext A system that facilitates cross-chain interactions via state channels. User experience Least Authority Assessment of GSN v2 contracts. User experience EIP 1559 Research & Development Joint grant to the EIP-1559 multisig to endorse community-wide initiatives, and coordination between ConsenSys for research and development collaboration.