I’m Gavin Wood, a co-creator of Ethereum and, along with Vitalik Buterin and Jeffrey Wilcke, one of the three leaders of Eth Dev, the non-profit entity that is overseeing the advancement (under contract from Ethereum Suisse) of the Ethereum blockchain. This is a brief update to inform everyone about recent activities.
I find myself on a pristine sofa that has been thrust forward in time from the 1960s. It resides in what will become the relaxation & unwinding area at the core of the (C++) Ethereum development operation. Beside me is Alex Leverington reclining in a Bond villain’s armchair, while Aeron Buchanan is wedged behind a locker that seems like it was an original prop from M*A*S*H. Lighting apparatus from a Soviet Blade Runner, now only remembered in Berlin’s trendiest locales where revivalist chemistry and 60s opulence inject a monstrous life into it, casts an unrelenting glow on the project underway. There is still a great deal to complete here (I feel a tad like I’m on the set of Challenge Anneka) but it is undeniably taking form. This progress is mainly attributable to our own Anneka Rice, Sarah O’Neill, who is tirelessly preparing this space for ÐΞVcon-0, our inaugural developer symposium. Assisting her, equally tirelessly, is the inimitable Roland, a seasoned international interior designer whose memoirs I eagerly anticipate reading.
On a personal note, I must express that these past few months have been among the busiest of my existence. I spent the last couple of weeks bouncing between Switzerland and the UK, visiting Stephan, Ian, and Louis. Despite the attractions in the north of England, it’s lovely to be back in Berlin; the combination of great burgers and cocktails, picturesque scenery, and pleasant company makes it hard to leave. Talented C++ developers are welcome to take that as a hint: we are still recruiting (-:
Technical Update
During the past weeks, we’ve implemented several significant amendments to the protocol, primarily measures for establishing light-client ÐApp nodes. A directors’ post will be forthcoming, detailing these changes, but it suffices to say we remain as dedicated as ever to enabling the Ethereum blockchain to support vastly multi-user decentralized applications across all device sizes. The seventh installment in our proof-of-concept series is poised for imminent release, while the final one, PoC-8, will commence development shortly.
New Additions
As time progresses, our team evolves from strength to strength. I am thrilled to announce that Dr. Sven Ehlert has joined us. He will spearhead development operations; refining the build process, enhancing its robustness, assisting Caktux with our CI systems, and most importantly, helping design a stress-testing framework where we’ll be simulating a series of extreme scenarios, measuring and analyzing. He’s also a scrum enthusiast and will assist in optimizing some of our development procedures as our team expands.
I am also delighted to announce that Dr. Jutta Steiner will be collaborating closely with us in managing our security audits. In addition to being an enthusiastic ÐApp developer, she possesses an excellent track record in project management and a profound understanding of not only this cutting-edge technology but also the human processes that must support it.
I must also acknowledge Dr. Andreas Lubbe; a long-standing member of the Berlin Ethereum community who has worked on Ethereum-related code (notably a fan of node.js), we have recently begun collaborating much more closely on the secure Ethereum contract documentation (SECDoc) framework and its associated natural language specification format, NatSpec. I eagerly anticipate tremendous collaboration.
Besides Lefteris, who commenced his first official day with us today (collaborating with Christian on Solidity, specifically on the SECDoc and NatSpec components), we have two new developers joining our ranks: Yann Levreau and Arkadiy Paronyan. Yann, a newcomer to Berlin from France, will be joined by Arkadiy who is traveling all the way from Moscow to join the team. Both possess considerable experience in C++ and related technologies and will assist us in enhancing the developer tools and particularly in paving the way for our IDE vision.
Lastly, I’m pleased to announce that Christoph Jentzsch, who initially joined us for only 2 months (while taking a break from his doctoral studies), will be joining the project full-time in the new year and will continue his much-appreciated contributions to our tests and overall C++ health and robustness.
ÐΞVcon-0
As time marches on, Sarah, Roland, and their team are working even harder to finalize our hub. They know that on Monday the 24th, Berlin will welcome some new guests. Developers and collaborators from across the globe will gather at 37a Waldemarstraße, Berlin 10999 for a week dedicated to aligning everyone on the same vision. It is DEVcon-0: Ethereum’s inaugural developer symposium.
Conceived by Jeff and myself on a drowsy train journey from Zug to Zurich as a means to align the Amsterdam/Go crowd with the Berlin/C++ group, it has transformed into a showcase, series of seminars, and workshops highlighting all aspects of ÐΞV, our technologies, our personnel, and some of our close collaborators. It offers a chance for us all to forge enduring professional relationships and bond in what will become a project that may not only define but certainly set a hallmark on our professional lives.
Our hub will accommodate about 40 individuals, the vast majority of whom are accomplished technical experts that Jeff, myself, or Vitalik have mentioned at one point or another, and for that week, we will be conversing, mingling, and sharing our ideas, aspirations, and visions for everything blockchain, decentralized, and disruptive. It’s going to be amazing: keep an eye out for the videos!
Drawing Nearer
In addition to the ongoing efforts toward launching PoC-8 and the alpha series, I’m happy to report that the Solidity project continues to progress impressively under Christian’s guidance: the first contracts compiled with Solidity have been delivered and successfully tested on the testnet, and as I write this, I see another Pull Request concerning state mappings. Fantastic work.
Alex has also been tirelessly laboring on our cryptographic code and is now embarking on the peer-to-peer layer, the comprehensive strategy of which we’ll unveil in his presentation at ÐΞVcon. Marek and Marian have also been busy working on the Javascript API, and I assure any Javascript ÐApp developers that they will have plenty to anticipate in PoC-8.
In Conclusion
There are several other developments and personnel I’d love to announce, but I fear, once again, it will have to wait until the next time. Stay tuned for a post-ÐΞVcon update!
Gav.