Blockdaemon Blog

Blockdaemon Ethereum Newsletter || April 2024

Ethereum Newsletter
Apr 15, 2024
By:
Freddy
Zwanzger
&
In this month's newsletter, we cover the successful launch of Restaking Stage 2 by EigenLayer, the Dencun hard fork activation, and a forward look at the Pectra fork.

In this month’s newsletter:

  • Restaking Stage 2 launched successfully by EigenLayer
  • Dencun hard fork works as intended
  • Pectra fork outlook

Restaking Stage 2 launched successfully by EigenLayer

On Tuesday, April 9, EigenLayer released their Stage 2 restaking smart contracts on Ethereum Mainnet. Previously, LSTs and native restaked Eth could only be added to their protocol to earn points. Now it is also possible to delegate these funds to node operators like Blockdaemon.

The first AVS to go live is EigenDA, with a handful of others to follow shortly after. Just note that there is currently no onchain slashing or rewards mechanism live on EigenLayer.

Blockdaemon is working with LRTs like Ether.fi and AVSs like Omni, operates a node, and provides white-label support for wallets and custodians looking to offer B2B2C restaking for their customers. Learn more on our restaking website and get in touch today!

Source: Blockdaemon

Dencun hard fork works as intended

The Dencun hard fork that activated successfully on Mainnet on March 13:

  1. Gas fees dropped massively for L2s. In turn, this increased user activities e.g. on Base L2, which led to high volatility in their gas fees. Though notably not on L1, so the separate gas fee market works as intended.
  2. A small incident of missed slots in the protocol was quickly fixed. But it highlighted the need to better test the MEV supply chain more thoroughly in upcoming hard forks.
  3. Vitalik Buterin reminded everyone that there is still a lot to do. While protocol changes of the future might be more incremental, the application layer builders should adopt their mindset to build for millions of users to come.
  4. Due to the reduced onboarding capacity after the fork, over the last 30 days the staking activation queue has risen to over 8 days again.

Image source: EIP-4844 Blobs Dune dashboard from Galaxy Research 

Pectra fork outlook

Ethereum core developers settled on a preliminary scope for the Pectra, the next Ethereum hard fork targeted for the end of 2024.

The changes of EIP-7251: Increase the MAX_EFFECTIVE_BALANCE are expected to affect all ETH stakers. There are obvious benefits to the network, and it enables auto-compounding of rewards. But the higher slashing risks are a serious downside which makes us skeptical about adoption by staking institutions.
We’ll keep you updated on any new developments and welcome your questions!

Image source: EIP-7251 Slashing penalty analysis on Ethresear.ch 

Blockdaemon Resources

Previous Ethereum Newsletters 

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