Key Takeaways
- Ethereum’s Fusaka upgrade enters the Devnet-1 phase with 8 impactful EIPs centered on scalability, security, and data efficiency.
- Devnet-2 will follow with 3 additional enhancements, reinforcing Ethereum’s long-term modular vision.
- Protocol Guild’s contributions show rapid progress across Ethereum’s research, execution, and usability fronts.
Ethereum’s next significant protocol update, Fusaka, is moving from concept to code with the launch of Devnet-1. The first stage of this upgrade features eight Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) targeting crucial areas like scalability, cost predictability, and execution transparency.
Central among them is EIP-7594, PeerDAS, which introduces a trustless method for data availability sampling, a fundamental step for scaling Layer 2 ecosystems securely.
Two proposals, EIP-7823 and EIP-7883, revisit modular exponentiation gas usage, optimizing its safety and cost across transactions. Another EIP-7825 establishes a cap on transaction gas limits to prevent block-level congestion. Additionally, EIP-7892 enables blob-only forks, separating data-heavy operations from standard transaction flows.
Ether’s base fee logic gets a notable tweak with EIP-7918, which links blob base fees to execution gas levels, allowing better fee forecasting. To aid block producers, EIP-7917 implements a deterministic proposer lookahead, enhancing coordination and minimizing orphaned blocks. EIP-7935 is also included, setting the default block gas limit but flagged as informational.
Devnet-2 to Push Compatibility and Code Growth Limits
Pending the successful deployment of Devnet-1, Ethereum devs plan to roll out Devnet-2 with three more proposals. EIP-7951 introduces a precompile for secp256r1, a cryptographic curve widely used in mobile and web environments, making Ethereum more accessible across platforms.
EIP-7907 expands the contract code size limit, an anticipated change as developers increasingly run up against current constraints when building complex apps. EIP-7934 rounds out the batch by restricting RLP (Recursive Length Prefix) execution block sizes, reinforcing Ether’s decoding safety mechanisms.
Ethereum developers have confirmed that no further EIPs will be added to Fusaka. The current scope is deliberate, aimed at maintaining high-impact changes without overloading the network upgrade.
Protocol Guild Fuels the Fire Behind Ethereum’s Momentum
Apart from Fusaka, active collaboration from Protocol Guild members is accelerating Ethereum’s progress. Tim and Alex are now working R&D-wide with a new structure, with scaling and UX now divided into dedicated teams.
Adrian and Ralex are working on Layer 2 dynamics, while Barnabé Monnot and Rudolf Tanțău are taking care of the Ethereum usability frontier. Contributors like Potuz worked on slot time reduction, while Hagopian and the zkVM team were working on zkVM performance benchmarks.
Soispoke presented designs for anti-censorship fee mechanisms and advanced FOCIL for discussion toward Glamsterdam. Other significant developments include Terence Tsao’s work on blob improvement, Dankrad Feist’s hardware simplification proposals, and Pooja Ranjan’s PEEPanEIP sessions focusing on encrypted mempools expanding the discussions.
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