Research & Development

Thanks to Kevaundray Wedderburn, Alex Stokes, Tim Beiko, Mary Maller, Alexander Hicks, George Kadianakis, Dankrad Feist, and Justin Drake for feedback and review. Ethereum is going all in on ZK. Eventually we expect to migrate to using ZK proofs at all levels of the stack, from consensus layer signature aggregation to onchain privacy with client side proving, and upgrade the protocol to be simpler and more zk-friendly. But the first step will be an L1 zkEVM.

As of today, all Ethereum execution clients support partial history expiry in accordance with EIP-4444. While work on full, rolling history expiry is ongoing, users can expect to reduce the disk space required for an Ethereum node by 300-500 GB by removing the block data prior to the Merge. This will allow a node to fit comfortably on a 2 TB disk. See below for information on each specific client.

Ethereum’s weekly All Core Developer calls are a lot to keep up with, so this "Checkpoint" series aims for high-level updates depending on what’s happening in core development. See the previous update here. This is a special edition of the series! Kicking off Berlin Blockchain Week, ethereum core devs and researchers got together for an interop hacking week to make progress both on long-term research directions and short-term implementation of the Fusaka upgrade and gas limit increases. Two of these days solicited feedback on longer-term research directions from L2 and zk teams. The most recent in-person interop was in Bangkok prior to Devcon but previous interops focused on Pectra & PeerDAS (Nyota), Shapella & Protodanksharding (Edelweiss), the Merge (Amphora), and Eth2 (Ontario)

Ethereum’s weekly All Core Developer calls are a lot to keep up with, so this "Checkpoint" series aims for high-level updates roughly every 4-5 weeks, depending on what’s happening in core development. See the previous update here.

Ethereum’s weekly All Core Developer calls are a lot to keep up with, so this "Checkpoint" series aims for high-level updates roughly every 4-5 calls, depending on what’s happening in core development. See the previous update here.

The Pectra network upgrade is scheduled to activate on the Ethereum mainnet on May 07, 2025 at epoch 364032 (10:05:11 UTC)! Mainnet client releases are listed below.

TL;DR: Review the program details for EPF6 🔎 Applications for EPF6 are open until April 30 📝 An introductory town hall will be held for an overview and questions on April 21 at 4PM UTC 🎙️ We are excited to announce that the applications are now open for the sixth cohort of the Ethereum Protocol Fellowship (EPF6). The EPF provides a pathway for aspiring protocol developers to make meaningful contributions to Ethereum. In each cohort, a diverse group is assembled to work toward advancing Ethereum's roadmap during the fellowship. This includes the development of client implementations, testing and specifications, and participating in the latest core protocol research. With an overarching goal to find eventual placement for fellows in R&D teams working on core protocol development,

TL;DR: The EPF successfully concluded the fifth cohort, Study Group 2025 and is preparing for cohort six (EPF6). Applications will be announced soon, keep an eye on the EF blog! In the meantime, get ready by enhancing your Ethereum protocol knowledge at EPF.wiki and sign up for the newsletter to get notified about announcements. The Ethereum Protocol Fellowship completed its fifth cohort, culminating with EPF Day at Devcon in Bangkok. Its completion marked 5 months of immersive learning, research and contribution to the Ethereum core ecosystem from a group of talented and dedicated fellows. Client devs and researchers welcomed new contributors, some of which stayed working with them long-term. Additionally, the second iteration of the Protocol Study Group concluded after 2 months of intensive learning about