Researching transparent finance; more specifically Ethereum L1 cryptoeconomic designs @ethereum
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One step closer to 4-8x faster Ethereum finality!
It took some time and lots of tokens, but we now have a formally verified proposal for a decoupled consensus protocol in I* (a future Ethereum upgrade)! Not yet a full spec (up next), but it includes all the key consensus-relevant details to become one.
Since Ethereum aspires to be live without most of the stake online, the protocol involves many more components than a normal BFT protocol, and its correctness involves much more than standard safety and liveness. Those nuanced properties are now verified!
What's more, I came away convinced that all protocol design will involve AI-assisted Formal Verification in the future, both for correctness and iteration speed.
The work wasn't limited to just:
Design the protocol -> Formally verify it
Instead, the loop became more like:
Design -> Formal Model -> Find exactly what breaks and why -> Redesign it.
For a fairly complicated protocol like this one, I think having the Lean model be part of the design loop played a big role in accelerating the process.
A future with agents paired with formal models is a superpower for Ethereum development, because they can then use those models to find exactly where an argument breaks down, formalize counterexamples, test proposed fixes, iterate on the protocol.
Many details that would slip under the radar when asking agents (and indeed, humans) can now be specified exactly and checked by the Lean kernel. This then forces agents to be more precise and lets them make verifiable progress on their own. It's been incredible to see this play out, seeing agents find gaps and propose protocol changes to fix them.
In other words, autoresearch can speed up protocol design, formal verification is here to stay, and Ethereum Finality will get faster.
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Slides from my presentation at the Frame Transaction Breakout docs.google.com/presentation…
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Available also outside of X now (with some improvements)
notes.ethereum.org/@andersel…
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Two suggestions for EIP-8141 Frame transactions: specify state limits in bytes, and use a single unified max fee. Plus a discussion of how the frame-by-frame gas accounting relates to EIP-7999.
ethereum-magicians.org/t/eip…
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We are trying to settle on a design for the EVM gas accounting under a multidimensional fee market (e.g., EIP-7999) and would like to engage with developers in the autumn. Please reach out to us or engage with the relevant research posts. ethresear.ch/t/designs-for-e…
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Relevant other EFers working on the topic are @VitalikButerin, @misilva73, @omw_to_the_moon, @nero_eth and intern @xzhvyr.
We are also trying to analyze related concerns, such as how to preserve CR if BAL data is added to EIP-7999.
ethereum-magicians.org/t/pre…
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Slides for yesterday's presentation at ACDE of EIP-8372: Normalized state gas limit.
docs.google.com/presentation…
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I will present EIP-8372 on ACDE. We don't know whether users will spend 50% of their gas budget on state creation after Glamsterdam. There are two Failure modes:
(1) <50% = we will create too little state;
(2) >50% = we will suppress execution via the 8037 max metering function.
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In essence, we normalize the state gas limit:
(1) If demand for state creation is too low, the cost per state byte is reduced together with the state gas limit.
(2) If demand for state creation is too high, the cost per state byte is increased together with the state gas limit.
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Thank you for your many many contributions to Ethereum while at the EF! Having your input on research projects and EIPs have been a great blessing. I know many people who feel the same way.
My "Francesco exception" is to never take anything for granted when studying a blockchain design problem.. unless Francesco says so. We're lucky that you remain in the Ethereum ecosystem!
Status update: I am moving from the Ethereum Foundation to Ethlabs @ethlabs_org, joining the team to accelerate protocol work in the age of Ethereum adoption.
In 5 years at EF Research, I have worked on research and specification of a wide range of Protocol R&D: mev, consensus, data availability sampling, execution layer pricing. In every workstream, I am grateful to have found talented, principled, passionate colleagues.
Leaving that behind is hard, but after 5 years this time of great change seems right for a new beginning. Thankfully, I am not going far! For the first time since I have been working on Ethereum research, there is a credible shot at some of it (and more) happening outside the EF.
I'll be joining long time EF colleagues at Ethlabs to make this a reality, building a world class team to bring new talent into the ecosystem and make a real impact on Ethereum's chances to move economic activity to an open, global, censorship-resistant substrate.
Besides helping Ethlabs to grow and find its footing as a contributor to protocol R&D, I'll continue much of my work. In particular, I intend to continue focusing a lot of my effort on making Ethereum finalize much faster, as soon as possible.
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True that. I think a good framework is to distinguish between:
* Exogenous MEV – induced by information external to the protocol, such as changes in CEX prices, prices on other chains, or other offchain information not yet reflected in the protocol state.
* Endogenous MEV – induced by the protocol state itself, such as imbalances between pools, available liquidations, or other imbalances internal to the protocol.
* Autogenous MEV (i.e., transaction-induced MEV) – induced when a transaction’s own execution creates or reveals a new public signal, such as a large repricing trade or other state transition.
Such a distinction is important for understanding the MEV landscape. Furthermore, we must analyze MEV in the context of the “information ingress boundary”, the point at which new information enters onchain as the builder commits to a new block.
I covered this extensively in the LUCID EIP:
eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-8…
I really appreciate this thoughtful piece for @kubimensah, disentangling the knotty threads of MEV, allocation and user security.
Some thoughts.. "MEV" is a catch-all term to refer to the value induced by perturbations of state.
Sometimes state is perturbed by user transactions that intend to move the state to a new point, eg, doing a swap, which changes their balances and the state of the exchange they perform their swap on.
Sometimes state is perturbed externally, eg, the price of an asset evolves in markets outside "the chain", and this perturbation wants to be mirrored on the chain itself.
Here's the problem: A user's intent to perturb state, to execute their own plan, should not be hijacked by external parties who weaponise the user's intent against them.
Too often, we've identified the value on the table for the problem. In some cases, it's just value on the table that needs to be allocated. A difficult problem! Allocating it fairly ensures economic efficiency of the chain + diversity in the market, and diversity in the market ensures user optionality.
In cases where value on the table comes from the user's pocket, the issue is not that the user's intent is disclosed, it is that is disclosed to everyone, in particular adversarial parties that are able to benefit from the disclosure at the user's expense.
User-controlled disclosure is the right direction, designed for the specific use case that the user intends to perform. This can mean either disclosure to systems where secrets are secured by cryptography, eg, to the chain directly with encrypted mempools; or where user information is appropriately priced and paid for, in markets that are transparent enough to ensure their openness, but dark enough to keep users secure.
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Can't really go wrong with these guys! Subtraction-satisfaction in motion
Announcing Ethlabs: a non-profit R&D lab for Ethereum and ETH
Our mission is to make Ethereum the settlement layer of the global economy.
The internet became global because shared protocols created a common language between networks. Private systems remained useful, but bounded. Finance is approaching a similar moment. As value, assets, and markets become digital, the world needs shared settlement infrastructure.
Ethereum is uniquely positioned to become that shared base layer, the neutral foundation on which users, institutions, and agents can transact without intermediation.
What we believe:
• We believe credible neutrality matters. Ten years of uptime and the lowest counterparty risk. Ground that cannot be pulled away by any one country, institution, company, or person.
• We believe ETH matters. The most valuable, programmable store of value. A decade of broad distribution, deep liquidity in onchain markets, and maximally trustless asset on Ethereum.
• We believe DeFi matters. Markets, liquidity, credit, exchange, and coordination, open to anyone.
• We believe adoption matters. Principles do not change the world until people benefit from them.
We sit between two worlds: real usage from the builders at the frontier, and the protocol that has to support it. We work with users, applications, wallets, L2s, infrastructure teams, institutions, ETH holders, core devs and researchers, then turn what they actually need into protocol work, shared standards, infrastructure, and shipped products.
Ethlabs is independent but Ethereum is a shared project. We are one node in a much larger network of stewards. This is the multi-node future.
We have spent the better part of the past decade contributing to Ethereum core research and development.
We are opinionated and transparent. We move with urgency, learn in public, and course-correct when we’re wrong.
We are building a lean, talent-dense team for people who want to do the most important work of their careers: join@ethlabs.org
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Anders Elowsson 🌻 retweeted
I'm joining Ethlabs @ethlabs_org, a new R&D lab to grow Ethereum and ETH.
The network and the asset are entering a new age of adoption, and this is a shift we cannot miss. More capital is coming onchain, both institutional and retail, through the portals of DeFi, stablecoins, prediction markets, agents, and many other venues.
I want a world where this capital powers greater wealth, where the system is transparent and verifiable, while value remains private and uncensorable. This is what Ethereum, with ETH at its centre, can offer better than anyone else. This is at hand, and we need to deliver on it.
In recent years, as a core steward of Ethereum Protocol R&D, the need for a tighter loop between the protocol and product layers has become impossible for me to look away from. We'll work to ensure that the Ethereum platform meets the moment and grows to become the settlement layer for the global economy.
This means, for me:
• Improving blockspace quality and mainnet execution, with a faster Ethereum L1, the heartbeat of the network, and a stronger transaction supply chain.
• Improving the free and secure flow of assets on the network, with seamless, unbreakable bridges and composability.
• Being a technical partner to innovative products wishing to leverage Ethereum's unique properties with best-in-class user experience.
• And delivering without compromise on Ethereum's core properties always, wherever our mission takes us.
We're excited to get started and I could not be more grateful for the support we have received from our funders. I am reminded today that we are surrounded with immensely talented and incredibly supportive builders, core devs, allocators and investors, who all share the same passion and care for Ethereum.
Ethereum is a special network, in a special ecosystem.
Please reach out to chat and learn more, and let us know your interest in joining our mission with an email to join@ethlabs.org
Announcing Ethlabs: a non-profit R&D lab for Ethereum and ETH
Our mission is to make Ethereum the settlement layer of the global economy.
The internet became global because shared protocols created a common language between networks. Private systems remained useful, but bounded. Finance is approaching a similar moment. As value, assets, and markets become digital, the world needs shared settlement infrastructure.
Ethereum is uniquely positioned to become that shared base layer, the neutral foundation on which users, institutions, and agents can transact without intermediation.
What we believe:
• We believe credible neutrality matters. Ten years of uptime and the lowest counterparty risk. Ground that cannot be pulled away by any one country, institution, company, or person.
• We believe ETH matters. The most valuable, programmable store of value. A decade of broad distribution, deep liquidity in onchain markets, and maximally trustless asset on Ethereum.
• We believe DeFi matters. Markets, liquidity, credit, exchange, and coordination, open to anyone.
• We believe adoption matters. Principles do not change the world until people benefit from them.
We sit between two worlds: real usage from the builders at the frontier, and the protocol that has to support it. We work with users, applications, wallets, L2s, infrastructure teams, institutions, ETH holders, core devs and researchers, then turn what they actually need into protocol work, shared standards, infrastructure, and shipped products.
Ethlabs is independent but Ethereum is a shared project. We are one node in a much larger network of stewards. This is the multi-node future.
We have spent the better part of the past decade contributing to Ethereum core research and development.
We are opinionated and transparent. We move with urgency, learn in public, and course-correct when we’re wrong.
We are building a lean, talent-dense team for people who want to do the most important work of their careers: join@ethlabs.org
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Anders Elowsson 🌻 retweeted
We just announced Ethlabs (@ethlabs_org). Its mission is stewarding the growth of Ethereum and ETH. Here is why I decided to stay in Ethereum after four years at the Foundation.
We are at the moment Ethereum was built for. Adoption is here. Blokchains are being adopted as the most efficient financial rails and the traction of the very innovative financial services built on Ethereum, is accelerating fast.
Ethereum is best positioned to become the base layer for worldwide finance. It is unrivaled in credible neutrality, permissionlessness, and robustness. The core protocol is now steadily increasing its throughput and speed to meet demand. Ethereum’s application layer has the largest developer base and most institutional adoption. The contest now is on product and growth: improve user and dev experience and bring Ethereum’s apps and assets to more people.
At Ethlabs, I will focus on growth by:
- Supporting Ethereum’s builders.
- Improving infra and standards for devs, builders, and institutions.
- Increasing distribution for Ethereum’s apps and assets.
Throughout setting up Ethlabs it is incredible to see how much support we have gotten. So many of us want Ethereum and ETH to succeed. Largely thanks to the ecosystem’s size, force, and culture, it is now positioned to be an enormous improvement to the global financial system. That’s why I’m staying in Ethereum and that’s the work I want to do. Interested in joining? Go to join@ethlabs.org.
Today is truly an Ethereum moment, thanks to all our backers (@BitMNR, @Sharplink, @ethereumJoseph, and so many others) and the entire Ethereum ecosystem!
Announcing Ethlabs: a non-profit R&D lab for Ethereum and ETH
Our mission is to make Ethereum the settlement layer of the global economy.
The internet became global because shared protocols created a common language between networks. Private systems remained useful, but bounded. Finance is approaching a similar moment. As value, assets, and markets become digital, the world needs shared settlement infrastructure.
Ethereum is uniquely positioned to become that shared base layer, the neutral foundation on which users, institutions, and agents can transact without intermediation.
What we believe:
• We believe credible neutrality matters. Ten years of uptime and the lowest counterparty risk. Ground that cannot be pulled away by any one country, institution, company, or person.
• We believe ETH matters. The most valuable, programmable store of value. A decade of broad distribution, deep liquidity in onchain markets, and maximally trustless asset on Ethereum.
• We believe DeFi matters. Markets, liquidity, credit, exchange, and coordination, open to anyone.
• We believe adoption matters. Principles do not change the world until people benefit from them.
We sit between two worlds: real usage from the builders at the frontier, and the protocol that has to support it. We work with users, applications, wallets, L2s, infrastructure teams, institutions, ETH holders, core devs and researchers, then turn what they actually need into protocol work, shared standards, infrastructure, and shipped products.
Ethlabs is independent but Ethereum is a shared project. We are one node in a much larger network of stewards. This is the multi-node future.
We have spent the better part of the past decade contributing to Ethereum core research and development.
We are opinionated and transparent. We move with urgency, learn in public, and course-correct when we’re wrong.
We are building a lean, talent-dense team for people who want to do the most important work of their careers: join@ethlabs.org
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Anders Elowsson 🌻 retweeted
Ethereum is about to fundamentally change how blocks are executed. With the upcoming Glamsterdam hardfork, it's shipping EIP-7928: Block-level Access Lists, a proposal that brings parallelization to the EVM.
Here's a short explainer of what it is, how it works, and why it's a big deal for scaling.
Let's start from the top. Alongside EIP-7732 (ePBS), EIP-7928 is the execution-layer (EL) headliner for Glamsterdam. Like ePBS, the main focus has been scaling Ethereum, though both proposals come with a bunch of other, equally important properties on the side e.g. removing trust requirements from the PBS pipeline or improving sync.
EIP-7928 adds a Block Access List (BAL) to every Ethereum block. A BAL is a list of accounts and storage slots that the block touches, but that's not all: it also contains post-transaction state diffs (this part is critical!).
Post-transaction state diffs tell you what the state looks like after each transaction. Quick example: user A swaps 1 ETH for DAI on DEX B. The BAL tells you that user A's ETH balance decreased by 1 ETH + tx fees and their nonce went up by 1; that DEX B's ETH balance went up by 1 ETH; and that inside the DAI contract, user A's DAI balance increased while DEX B's decreased.
In other words, all of that info becomes statically available, something that previously required tracing the transaction.
Client software (Geth, Nethermind, Besu, Erigon, Reth, Ethrex, Nimbus) can use this to do a few very powerful things:
1. Parallelize transaction execution. Knowing the post-state of each tx resolves the dependencies between them. No transaction has to wait on the previous one anymore, so execution can be perfectly parallelized. Instead of large parts of block validation sitting idle waiting on sequential execution, clients can finally make much better use of modern hardware.
2. Batch prefetch. One of the most cumbersome jobs for a node has been fetching the state needed for execution from disk. Because state locations (e.g. the exact storage slot in the DAI contract where user A's balance lives) are only discovered along the way, while executing, state-fetching has been a real drag on scaling: it blocks execution, takes time, and eventually slows everything down. With BALs, everything a node needs for execution is known upfront and can be loaded into cache in one go, in parallel. This speeds things up even further.
3. Parallelize post-state root calculation. Another expensive task is walking the updated state tree to compute the post-state root, which is needed so that everyone agrees on what's on disk after executing the block. With the post-tx state already in the BAL, nodes can do this in parallel while executing. A heavy task that used to wait until all transactions had finished can now run alongside prefetching and execution.
4. Snap sync (v2). An often overlooked, less sexy aspect of blockchains is syncing. Nodes need to catch up with the chain, and they need to catch up faster than the chain progresses. Today, most nodes do snap sync: downloading blocks, headers, and state in parallel while chasing the tip, and then "healing" the database once they're close to the head. Healing means asking peers for trie nodes, receiving them, validating them, and updating the local DB. It's iterative, networking-heavy, can take a while, and especially higher throughput pushes that phase to its limits. BALs help here too: with snap v2, nodes can catch up to the tip and skip the healing phase entirely. Syncing at higher throughput becomes more robust and reliable.
So, to summarize, a BAL contains two things:
-> The state locations the block accesses
-> The state changes after each tx (incl. the new values)
We're already seeing big performance gains today: on 6-core machines, EL clients validate blocks up to 5x faster, making block gas limits of 300M a very realistic outcome. ePBS will add to that by decoupling the block from the payload, giving validators 2-4x more time for execution.
To not overshoot (security stays priority #1), the fork will likely ship with a 200M gas limit, but we shouldn't be stuck there for long before pushing to 300M and beyond. That's a 10x in scaling since we started taking the topic seriously, without touching hardware requirements.
None of this would have happened without people going all-in, heads down, shipping: so many hours spent in calls debating the right design, so many iterations refining the specs, and tons of test cases written (and still being worked on). The road from whiteboard to production-ready code has been a journey, and we're not at the finish line yet, but from what I can tell, things look super bullish for Ethereum.
Glamsterdam will be a fork that shows what's possible when a distributed, decentralized community works on a shared goal, laser-focused on providing enough block space to onboard the next wave of users.
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