Happy July! Read on for the list of projects funded in Q1 of this year. But first: office hours are in session! Signups are open now through this Sunday (July 4) for teams or individuals to request a one-on-one call with the ESP team during the week of July 5-9. These calls are a simplified way for teams or individuals to access certain types of support such as high-level feedback, resource recommendations or guidance on applying for grants. More info...

The long-anticipated London upgrade is now ready for deployement on the Ethereum testnets! The upgrade will first go live on Ropsten, at block 10499401, which is expected to happen around June 24, 2021. This upgrade follows Berlin, which was activated only a few months ago on the Ethereum mainnet. By starting the work on London while Berlin was being rolled out, client teams were able to release this network upgrade at record speed! The upgrade includes the following EIPs: EIP-1559:...

It’s always fun to hear about new grants as they’re awarded, but what happens after the announcement? In this series, we’ll check in on a couple of projects that are well underway - or already at the finish line. Read on to learn about some recent milestones and achievements by grantees!

Steady progress tl;dr Altair progress Rayonism wrapped up; The Merge progresses

Friends, As the Ethereum ecosystem continues to grow and mature at break-neck speeds, we continue to work hard on delivering an amazing Devcon 6. Though the timing is still unclear as to when we’ll all be able to reunite in Bogota, we want to keep our community involved along the Road to Devcon! In an effort to do this, we’re announcing Road to Devcon Quests!

TL;DR: Ethereum will use at least ~99.95% less energy post merge. Ethereum will be completing the transition to Proof-of-Stake in the upcoming months, which brings a myriad of improvements that have been theorized for years. But now that the Beacon chain has been running for a few months, we can actually dig into the numbers. One area that we’re excited to explore involves new energy-use estimates, as we end the process of expending a country’s worth of energy on consensus....

Have you have ever been interested in getting involved in the development of the core Ethereum protocols? If so, there is a new program to discuss that’s targeted at you. As part of an EF procotol-support initiative, I’m very excited to announce the “Core Developer Apprenticeship Program”.

The progress being made in the Ethereum ecosystem lately is really inspiring. Whether you’re excited by the adoption of proof of stake (and a faster, more secure, greener Ethereum), the coming Merge and other big upgrades, or by some of the many applications and solutions that have the power to change diverse industries, it is a great time to be a part of the Ethereum community.