Progress has consistently advanced over the past six weeks as we near the release of Metropolis. Throughout a succession of core development meetings during the preceding months, we have outlined and finalized the EIPs for Metropolis, and amended the Yellow Paper accordingly. Metropolis has now been divided into two sequential forks, named “Byzantium” and “Constantinople”. EIPs for Byzantium (Metropolis part one) are essentially concluded, and the final outstanding tasks pertain to developing tests and ensuring that all clients pass these tests.
The Ethereum network continues to witness unprecedented levels in transaction activity, and the network has maintained stability throughout this time with consistently low uncle rates.
Research
- Development on the Casper implementation has progressed, and the Casper hybrid fork choice algorithm is now successfully passing its initial set of tests. Upcoming endeavors include more testing, and integration into pyethapp.
- Efforts on a sharding implementation in Python have commenced vigorously at the sharding repository, as we have welcomed several new developers over recent months to assist with this endeavor. Refer to the documentation folder for a preliminary outline of the roadmap.
- Initiation of a “testing language” has begun, designed to enable rapid creation and execution of tests for proof of work, Casper, and sharding fork choice guidelines. This should significantly enhance coverage and expedite testing for both Casper and sharding.
- A co-authored Plasma whitepaper has been published. Numerous groups within the community have already shown interest in developing implementations.
- The research papers have undergone some reorganization. Please check the documents at https://github.com/ethereum/research/tree/master/papers and the issues list at https://github.com/ethereum/research/wiki/Problems.
Geth
Implemented the subsequent:
Currently engaged in:
Mist
- Mist has exceeded two million total downloads across all versions. Version 0.8.10 (for both Mist and Wallet) has achieved over 830k downloads.
- Mist 0.9 has been launched, introducing several significant features such as support for Swarm uploads and ENS-compatible URLs.
- The Ethereum Wallet has also received updates to facilitate ENS across all address fields, including send and contract execution fields. Subscribing to tokens is now simpler by merely typing the three-letter symbol.
- The Mist repository currently has over 800 unresolved issues, with 700 new cases identified in the latest months. We are addressing how to manage these issues, as many are not standalone matters but rather requests for technical assistance.
- Research related to Mist has progressed, enabling dapp development within a constrained subset of JavaScript that would allow running Mist in a browser. We are working towards releasing further details and a proof of concept in the forthcoming month.
ENS
During the weekend of August 11-13 in London, the inaugural community-led ENS workshop took place, where members of the broader community, including several wallet representatives, individuals engaged in Ethereum projects, and other ENS stakeholders, discussed the current status and future prospects of ENS. A summary post can be found here, but here are some key takeaways:
- The community is keen to see the next iteration of the ENS registrar emphasize providing incentives for releasing unused domains while minimizing costs for ENS users.
- The community prioritized establishing a dispute resolution mechanism as a voluntary second-layer solution, alongside implementing protective measures against impersonators and integrating various voluntary second-layer features.
- There is agreement on how domain proprietors can extend safeguards to subdomain owners.
- The community believes that improvements should be pursued to enhance the efficiency of the domain resale process.
Web3.js
In the previous fortnight, the beta version of web3.js was launched and rapidly adopted by the community. Several packages have commenced the integration of the updated version within their libraries. Since the debut of the first beta, several issues have been identified and rectified while enhancements have been introduced, resulting in the current state of beta.18.
When web3.js 1.0 is fully prepared for public use, a dedicated blog entry will unveil its innovative features.
To experiment with it yourself, you can either clone the 1.0 branch or install it through npm install web3@1.0.0-beta.18
Feel free to report issues and propose enhancements to the GitHub issues.
Light Client
- A new version of the LES/2 protocol is under development.
- Rapid log history searching has been integrated (requires LES/2 for operation in light client mode).
C++
- Finishing touches are being made to the Metropolis modifications, and the new precompiled contracts are undergoing benchmarking.
- The Hunter C++ package manager has been incorporated into the project to enhance portability.
- A prototype for state snapshot support for the C++ client is in progress.
- The ethminer has been removed from the cpp-ethereum initiative. A new ethminer repository has been established for the mining community. We are assisting with code maintenance, building, and distributing the binaries. The miner itself has received updates, enabling it to switch work packages significantly faster.
Solidity
We have incorporated support for “experimental” features that can be activated using a “pragma” directive in the source code. One of these features is the new ABI encoder, which can handle arbitrarily nested arrays! Another upcoming experimental feature is the automated verification of assertions and overflow conditions via an SMT solver. We also resolved two issues in the code generator. Additionally, we have executed numerous smaller adjustments that enhance error messages, introduced new warnings and enhanced security. Finally, work has commenced on implementing view and pure function specifiers.
Remix
- We are currently undertaking extensive refactoring and upgrades to UI/UX.
- Shortly, the master branch will be implemented on https://yann300.github.io/remix instead of remix.ethereum.org, enabling us to address bugs and refine everything prior to relaunching on remix.ethereum.org.
- Important note: We kindly ask you not to use it for your routine development tasks as it isn’t stable yet. Feel free to provide feedback – https://gitter.im/ethereum/remix.
EVMJIT
Support for Metropolis has been integrated into EVMJIT; all tests were successfully completed. Furthermore, EVM-C has been upgraded to accommodate new functionalities for Metropolis, such as REVERT support and return buffers. The EVM-C interface is gradually advancing, but only VM trace support remains to deem it fully operational.
Swarm
As the swarm testnet transitions to new infrastructure, the team is diligently developing new features for our POC3 roadmap set for after Metropolis. The team has dedicated the last nine months to creating a devp2p network simulation and testing framework, and the module is now poised for integration with go-ethereum. PSS (bzz whispered), our innovative node-to-node communication protocol, now fully integrates Whisper’s encryption module and facilitates remote peer sessions using Diffie-Hellman key exchange for UDP-like protocols. The most significant element of our upcoming release is a complete overhaul of the swarm network layer. In this quest, the connectivity (Kademlia overlay topology) and discovery (topology bootstrapping) components are ready for integration.
The lone missing component for a proper Dropbox backend (to complement FUSE and ENS) is
chunk-level encryption for confidentiality. We developed a sophisticated solution: the Keccak-Feistel block cipher, which will be incorporated into POC3.
The team has begun work on the third orange paper detailing generalized swap, swear, and swindle games (courtroom contract suite) to stimulate decentralized services by offering scalable payment, incentivization, and service assurances. Video recordings from the Berlin Swarm Summit in June can be found on the summit site at swarm http://swarm-gateways.net/bzz:/summit2017.ethersphere.eth/.
Whisper
- Version 5 has been launched.
- Initiative for version 6: discussions currently underway (EIP#627).
Ewasm
Ewasm itself is nearing completion in its current iteration. Development work on Hera, an Ewasm implementation compatible with the VM API utilized in Ethereum C++, has resumed as EVM-C interfaces have matured considerably.
EthereumJS
Challenges with processing large numbers and specific edge cases have been detected and resolved. Implementation of Byzantium modifications is in progress. The most demanding area involves elliptic curve pairing precompiles. To accommodate these precompiles, we will utilize Zcash’s Rust implementation translated to asm.js. Additional efforts are being made to support the new tracing format and enhance the VM for performance.
EthereumJ
A duo of developers has commenced efforts to update EthereumJ for compatibility with Byzantium ahead of the initial Metropolis hard fork.
Pyethereum
Numerous bug corrections have been implemented alongside updates to related libraries (e.g., rlp.hex_decode and rlp.hex_encode in pyrlp). Metropolis EIPs are effectively integrated, and compliance with Byzantium state and block tests continues to enhance.
Py-EVM
Py-EVM is a novel implementation of the EVM crafted in Python. The library draws significant influence from the existing Pyethereum library, with the primary distinction being a more modular design.
Recent developments include:
- Broader expansion of the test suite beyond JSON-fixture based evaluations.
- Implementation of EIP150 for regulatory rules.
- Implementation of the DAO Fork regulations.
- Support for interchangeable ECC signing backends.
- Assistance for modular database backends.
Web3.py
Recent enhancements to the library encompass:
- Introduction of a Middleware API.
- Corrections related to string encodings.
- Enhanced error notifications for contract interactions with non-existent contracts.
- Verification of contract ABI.
- Verification of ERC55 checksummed addresses.
Security
We have obtained numerous bug bounty contributions, awarding Juno Im with 5000 points for a Mist-vulnerability. A bug in Solidity concerning ecRecover has been addressed (refer to https://github.com/ethereum/solidity/releases/tag/v0.4.14).
We are persistently enhancing testing, utilizing Hive and fuzzing the various raw VMs, performing internal state assessments after each opcode. Refer to Testing (below).
New opcodes and precompiles in Metropolis are undergoing benchmarks for finalization of gas expenses.
Testing
We have implemented several infrastructure upgrades:
- General Blockchain tests carry out blockchain test cases across all fork regulations.
- General State Tests can be transformed into blockchain tests to execute on Hive.
- Blockchain tests can now be created 20% quicker.
Ongoing efforts include:
- The consensus test suite ethereum/tests is nearing full alignment with the Metropolis EIPs. Only the two latest updates are pending implementation (#684 preventing contract/contract collision overwrite and #649 Metropolis difficulty bomb).
- Test format validator is identifying numerous errors in JSON test files, progressively applying looser rules to stricter regulations.
We are also delving into more sophisticated methods and enhancing collaboration with the community:
- Research on fuzz tests has advanced.
- Random test generation currently is unearthing conflicts among clients.
- The test contributor initiative has led to community input on the tests repository.
Viper
Viper has demonstrated significant advancement in the past month and a half, with increasing contributions from external collaborators. New security features including payable and internal modifiers have been integrated, alongside additional tests, and the language now supports accepting and returning fixed-size lists as inputs and outputs.
Refer to the https://github.com/ethereum/viper/blob/master/README.md and commit history for a changelog.
Bamboo
Bamboo is a programming language designed for Ethereum contracts. By the end of July, the initial release of Bamboo became accessible in the OCaml package manager opam install bamboo. Bamboo is now capable of executing a simple payment channel and an ERC20 token. Additionally, several contributors have commenced working on both improvements and documentation.
Eth-Isabelle
Eth-Isabelle delineates the Ethereum Virtual Machine for theorem provers such as Isabelle/HOL and Coq. The project has garnered substantial pull requests. Separation logic tactics from @seed effectively reduce many proof lengths by half. The proof indicating that a non-owner cannot jeopardize a wallet is more structured than ever. An independent JULIA interpreter developed by @mrsmkl acts as an executable specification of JULIA (an intermediate language within the Solidity compiler). It would be beneficial to validate this interpreter against the implementation. This interpreter could also serve as a foundation for a provably correct compiler from JULIA to EVM.
For testing eth-isabelle with BlockchainTests, ECDSA recover was necessary in OCaml, prompting @pirapira to make a contribution.
Yellow Paper
The pull requests affecting Metropolis are current, though these pull requests require categorization into two phases: Byzantium and Constantinople.
