EIP Fun Weekly #76: Unified Network Configuration, Dynamic Blob Schedules, Cross-Chain Messaging
A weekly resource exploring the latest EIPs, ERCs, key updates in the Ethereum protocol.
Welcome to read the 76th issue of EIP Fun Weekly. Let's take a look at what happened in the EIP community last week.
Meeting Updates
Ethereum All Core Developers Consensus Call #147
Pectra Upgrade
Pectra Devnet 5 Key updates:
Gossip Limit Adjustment: Proposal to increase the gossip limit from 10 MiB to 15 MiB to support a larger block gas limit. Concerns about potential consensus failures have led to a decision to maintain the current 10 MiB limit for now.
EIP 7742 Removal: EIP 7742, which uncouples blob count between CL and EL, was removed due to implementation complexity. Blob count will be adjusted through the genesis configuration instead.
Timeline: Devnet 5 may launch between Christmas and New Year's if enough clients pass Hive tests.
PeerDAS Renaming: EIP 7549 (PeerDAS) is renamed to "Fulu," intended for the next CL upgrade after Pectra.
Additional Information
Mekong: Stable with no issues; the block gas limit was recently increased from 30m to 36m gas.
EIP 7762: Excluded from Pectra based on feedback from rollup developers.
EIP 2537: BLS precompiles repricing is near completion, with final benchmarking expected next week.
Weekly EIP & ERC Highlights
EIP-7839: Unified Network Configuration
Streamlines configuration management by allowing the Execution Layer (EL) to fetch network parameters directly from the Consensus Layer (CL).
Purpose: Simplifies configuration management, ensuring consistency between the Execution and Consensus layers by making the CL the authoritative source of network parameters, reducing duplication and human error.
Key Benefits:
Eliminates Duplication: Removes the need to configure parameters separately for both the EL and CL.
Automatic Synchronization: Ensures parameters are always in sync between layers, reducing manual errors and maintenance overhead.
Simplifies Network Upgrades: Having a single source of truth for parameters simplifies upgrades and fork transitions.
Error Reduction: Reduces operator mistakes caused by misconfiguration.
Key Components:
New API: CL exposes an API endpoint to return unified configuration parameters, such as chain ID, fork epochs, and gas limits.
EL Startup Behavior: EL fetches configuration from CL at startup with retry logic to ensure availability. It does not start processing blocks until valid configuration is received.
Parameter Derivation: Some parameters (e.g., gas limits) are derived from values returned by the CL API, ensuring consistency.
EIP-7840: Add Blob Schedule to EL Config Files
Introduces a new configuration object in client files to specify per-fork blob counts, allowing dynamic adjustments to target and max blobs per block.
Purpose: Provides a way to configure the target and max blob counts per block for each fork, ensuring that execution clients can adjust these values without requiring complex handshakes over the engine API.
Key Benefits:
Dynamic Adjustments: Allows flexibility in adjusting blob counts (target and max) per block for each fork.
Simplified Configuration: Eliminates the need for complex communication via the engine API, streamlining configuration management.
Improved Protocol Interaction: Execution clients can use these values for core protocol activities like RPC methods, ensuring better functionality without overburdening the network.
Key Components:
Blob Schedule Configuration: A new object,
blobSchedule, is added to the client configuration files with per-fork target and max blob counts.Fork Transition Handling: If no explicit configuration is provided for the current fork, the values from the last specified fork are used. If no prior values exist, both target and max are set to zero.
ERC-7841: Cross-chain Message Format and Mailbox
Defines a standardized mailbox API and message format to simplify cross-chain communication between Layer 2 solutions, improving interoperability and developer experience.
Purpose: To standardize data exchange between L2 chains, addressing the fragmentation of existing communication protocols, allowing developers to build cross-chain applications without dealing with different formats, settlement mechanisms, or protocols.
Key Benefits:
Unified Developer Experience: One interface for cross-chain messaging, regardless of chain type or protocol.
Modularity: Chains can choose their own coordination and settlement protocols while using the same messaging system.
Shared Infrastructure: Reuse of existing tools and contracts for multiple use cases, simplifying development.
Key Components:
Mailbox API: Two contracts (one for synchronous, one for asynchronous messaging) to send/receive messages.
Message Format: A standardized structure for messages with metadata (source, destination, session ID) and payload.
Coordination Protocol: Mechanism for relaying messages between chains, either synchronously or asynchronously.
Other EIPs and ERCs:
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