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2024 Recap #36

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2024 Recap #36

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22f8bde
Clean-up
holgerd77 Oct 11, 2024
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More clean-up
holgerd77 Oct 11, 2024
fb516b0
Live roadmap headline adjustment (-> Recap)
holgerd77 Oct 11, 2024
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First 2024 recap additions
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4 changes: 2 additions & 2 deletions README.md
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Expand Up @@ -4,8 +4,8 @@ Organisational repository of the Ethereum Foundation JavaScript team.

The team currently encompasses the following projects:

- [Ethers.js](https://github.com/ethers-io/ethers.js/)
- [EthereumJS](https://github.com/ethereumjs/)
- [EthereumJS Monorepo](https://github.com/ethereumjs/ethereumjs-monorepo/) - Layer 1 Protocol Development
- [Utralight ](https://github.com/ethereumjs/ultralight/) - JavaScript Portal Network Client

See our [roadmap](./roadmap) for an overview on what we are up to and use
our public [Discord server](https://discord.gg/TNwARpR) if you want to reach out.
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101 changes: 88 additions & 13 deletions roadmap/README.md
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Expand Up @@ -10,9 +10,84 @@ list for an overview of the initial roadmaps from the respective years.
- [2021](./EF2021.md)
- [2022](./EF2022.md)
- [2023](./EF2023.md)
- [2024](./EF2024.md) [ DRAFT, October 13 2023 ]
- [2024](./EF2024.md)

## Q4 2023

## 2024 Recap

In 2024 priorities shifted substantially over the year and some focus areas haven been downgraded substantially while others have been
newly taken in. The following sections give a quick overview on the dynamics.

### Classic EthereumJS Client Development (Downgraded)

The EthereumJS [client](https://github.com/ethereumjs/ethereumjs-monorepo/tree/master/packages/client) is an indispensable research
tool for EIP prototyping due to its highly modular structure. At the same time limits on classic usage became even more clear throughout
the year, partly by the rise of (even) more performant L1 client alternatives like the Reth Rust-based client. We have therefore substantially downgraded
implementation efforts on things like SNAP sync, a flat database layout for (stateful) state storage, a wider devp2p refactor or client
multithreading support, which initially had some stronger presence in our 2024 roadmap. Some of these might still be useful and followed
upon on the sideline, though with less ressources applied.

### Browser Support (Substantially Upgraded)

JavaScript is THE programming language for the browser. Throughout the year it became clear that we had largely underappreciated one
central browser-related topic and challenge around our libraries: the size of the bundles created from our libraries to be possible
to be loaded in a web context. Especially for our EVM the bundles libraries (so: also including the 3rd-party dependencies) were several
100KBs too large to get efficiently loaded within a website context. We have therefore significantly ramped up efforts here, restructured
a lot of code to allow for removal of unnecessary code paths ("tree shaking") and removed unnecessary dependencies,
culminating in our October/November 2024 breaking releases with bundle size reductions e.g. for our EVM of 60% and greater.

Together with some other browser-related improvements these releases mark the first moment in time where the Ethereum L1 protocol
stack is now fully ready to be used within web browsers without substantial limitations.
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### Security (Substantially Upgraded)

This topic aligns very well with the above browser support one: since the libraries are now fully browser ready (and things like
EIP-7702 account abstraction is on the horizon) they - and particularly the EthereumJS EVM - will likely be used for more
"serious" and security-sensitive production use cases in the future. To take this into account we gave security a lot stronger
emphasis than initially planned. The dependency reduction from above is also a big step towards a more secure JavaScript EVM.
Through a collaboration with Paul Millr from [noble Crypto](https://paulmillr.com/noble/) we were able to replace remaining WASM
implementations for EVM precompiles (BLS, BN254 (aka alt_BN128)) as well as the 4844-related KZG crypto with pure JavaScript
implementations (the WASM code is not auditable and therfore less secure and even excluded to be used by policy by
security-sensitive products like MetaMask).

This makes up for a fully auditable JavaScript EVM for the first time and we plan to have an EVM audit done throughout 2025.

### EIP Implementation & Testing (Expanded)

The EthereumJS stack is historically being build up in a very modular way and is therefore well suited for EIP prototyping and
early on integration. 2024 was a year with a lot of protocol work to be done and our team increased its engagement here.

Some examples are:

- Pectra HF [devnet-3](https://notes.ethereum.org/@ethpandaops/pectra-devnet-3), prototyping (EIP-2935), lot of spec refinement work
- devnet-4, previous EIP-7702 [test filling](https://github.com/ethereumjs/ethereumjs-monorepo/pull/3737)
- Verkle [devnets](https://github.com/ethpandaops/verkle-devnets) participation, stateless block execution, spec work
- EIP-6493 Stable Container [Prototyping](https://github.com/ethereumjs/ethereumjs-monorepo/pull/3452)

Since autumn 2024 we are able to [fill execution-spec-tests](https://github.com/ethereum/execution-spec-tests/pull/752), which
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With this PR (plus the t8ntool PR on our side ethereumjs/ethereumjs-monorepo#3603) when trying to fill fixtures (especially the 7702 ones) we also found errors in the tests themselves, thus this opens a great feedback loop with the testing team to verify the tests are correct. Also part of this feedback loop is a coverage test: for instance, when we find a new rule in 7702 which is clearly not implemented, but the test filler did not complain, this means that this rule is thus not tested in execution-spec-tests and should be added.

A side note could also be added that we have a small amount of PRs merged in EEST with new tests.

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Thanks for the summary, will put more emphasis on these kind of things in the roadmap itself (this here is only the 2024 recap, so very much just a side document).

is the new test format for the Ethereum L1 protocol. We plan to build upon this new capability, which aligns well with our
early-on EIP prototyping work and embed within the team in a way that we can regularly contribute new test cases throughout
2025 and therefore do a substantial contribution to secure the protocol.

### Ultralight / Portal Network

For [Ultralight](https://github.com/ethereumjs/ultralight) respectively the Portal Network, 2024 was the year where all the pieces
slowly came together. Existing specs like for the Portal history network were finalized and battle tested so that these
parts can be leveraged for concrete integration projects like making EIP-4444 (prune historical block data) a reality.

Since we have both an L1 as well as a Portal stack our team is well positioned to contribute with early prototyping, spec work and integration.

In 2024 we e.g. have [started](https://github.com/ethereumjs/ethereumjs-monorepo/pull/3196) a prototype EIP-4844 integration,
have done a lot of bootnode work to support the evolving Portal Network testnets and have substantially contributed to both
spec definition and refinement of the state network by doing a first full implementation of the spec - see e.g. PRs [#539](https://github.com/ethereumjs/ultralight/pull/539) and [#649](https://github.com/ethereumjs/ultralight/pull/649). The state network is one of the core
networks of the Portal Network data network suite with the goal to provide distributed and lightweight access to the Ethereum
state, one of the harder problems to solve due to the (growing) size of the Ethereum network state.

### Ethers.js

Ethers.js is not part of the EF JavaScript team anymore but is now an independent entity within the EF.

## Q4 2023 Recap

### DevEx & VM

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -40,7 +115,7 @@ list for an overview of the initial roadmaps from the respective years.
- Migrating v6 ancillary packages to be v7-ready with collaborator assistance
- Updating documentation for v7

## Q3 2023
## Q3 2023 Recap

### DevEx & VM

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -71,7 +146,7 @@ list for an overview of the initial roadmaps from the respective years.
- More serious planning for v7, as I want to switch to a more regular annual release cycle to reduce the impact on version bumps by making more, smaller major releases
- Expand the cookbook section with more real-world examples, with JS and Solidity; EIP-712, signing, tokens, etc.

## Q2 2023
## Q2 2023 Recap

### DevEx & VM

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -109,7 +184,7 @@ list for an overview of the initial roadmaps from the respective years.
- Begin opening up additional repositories, adding other external contributors to help with Network-specific v6 plugins and ancillary libraries like LedgerSigner
- Migrate many “common” issues/discussions to the documentation cookbook section and Ethereum basics section and add links to the issues/discussions to these sections of the documentation

## Q1 2023
## Q1 2023 Recap

### DevEx & VM

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -147,7 +222,7 @@ list for an overview of the initial roadmaps from the respective years.
- Migrating to (or at least making a stronger presence) Mastodon for ethers for its advisories


## Q4 2022
## Q4 2022 Recap

### DevEx & VM

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -178,7 +253,7 @@ list for an overview of the initial roadmaps from the respective years.
- [x] Ethers v6 Release Candidate
- [x] Ethers v6 Release Documentation Updates

## Q3 2022
## Q3 2022 Recap

### DevEx & VM

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -217,7 +292,7 @@ list for an overview of the initial roadmaps from the respective years.
- [x] EIP-712 Type Exports
- [x] Continued Improved L2 Integration (Arbitrum/Optimism)

## Q2 2022
## Q2 2022 Recap

### DevEx & VM

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -261,7 +336,7 @@ list for an overview of the initial roadmaps from the respective years.
- [x] Focus on tooling, especially on the playground and the toolkit
- [x] Improved L2 Integration (Optimism/Matic)

## Q1 2022
## Q1 2022 Recap

### DevEx & VM

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -310,7 +385,7 @@ list for an overview of the initial roadmaps from the respective years.
- [x] Better IPFS support


## Q4 2021
## Q4 2021 Recap

General Library Work:

Expand All @@ -335,7 +410,7 @@ Ethers:

- [ ] Ethers: ethers/v6, with an emphasis on using more moderns JavaScript features (ES5), more comprehensive TypeScript and ancillary packages (enabling easier external contributors)

## Q3 2021
## Q3 2021 Recap

General Library Work:

Expand All @@ -361,7 +436,7 @@ Ethers:
- [x] Ethers: ethers issue and PR burn-down, closing issues and moving discussion issues to the discussions feature
- [x] Ethers: new website, adding the new tools, starting with the Playground and Toolbox (stretch goal of the Wallet w/ transaction composer)

## Q2 2021
## Q2 2021 Recap

- [x] EthereumJS VM: Block Builder API (Hardhat / Client), PR [#1158](https://github.com/ethereumjs/ethereumjs-monorepo/pull/1158)
- [x] EthereumJS: Post-Berlin ecosystem update work, e.g. PR [1206](https://github.com/ethereumjs/ethereumjs-monorepo/pull/1206)
Expand All @@ -378,7 +453,7 @@ Ethers:

- [x] Team: 1 new full-time and 2 new part-time hires

## Q1 2021
## Q1 2021 Recap

- [x] EthereumJS: Clique PoA Protocol Integration, PR [#1032](https://github.com/ethereumjs/ethereumjs-monorepo/pull/1032)
- [x] EthereumJS: Custom Chain / L2 Improvements I, PR [#1034](https://github.com/ethereumjs/ethereumjs-monorepo/pull/1034)
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