Ethereum Developers Discuss Pectra and Validator Requirements in ACDC Call #148

On January 9, 2025, Ethereum developers gathered for the inaugural All Core Developers Consensus (ACDC) call of the year, which was presided over by Ethereum Foundation Researcher Alex Stokes. This biweekly series serves as a forum for developers to discuss and align modifications to Ethereum’s consensus layer, identified as the Beacon Chain, as reported by galaxy.com.

Pectra Devnet 5 and Validator Specifications

Throughout the call, developers conveyed updates regarding the Pectra testing and implementation status. A significant point of discussion was establishing hardware specifications for validator node operators, an endeavor spearheaded by a developer known as “Kev.” The assembly concurred on the decision to name the seventh consensus layer fork after the star “Gloas.”

Parithosh Jayanthi, EF Developer Operations Engineer, emphasized unresolved matters in the consensus layer specifications that require attention prior to the launch of Pectra Devnet 5. Updates were made to Hive tests for both execution layer (EL) and consensus layer (CL) clients, with the majority performing satisfactorily against these assessments. Stokes brought up another concern affecting EL clients tied to EIP 2935 and intended to engage with Geth developer “Lightclient.”

Timelines and Enhancements

The schedule for Pectra Devnet 5 was examined, with Stokes advising to consult EL client teams before confirming a launch date. EF Protocol Support Lead Tim Beiko proposed initiating Devnet 5 the following week, aiming to enhance Ethereum’s public testnets, Sepolia and Holesky, in February and possibly deploying on the mainnet by March.

The call also explored whether the new Ephemery testnet should undergo upgrades concurrently with Sepolia and Holesky. The consensus was to advance Sepolia first, followed by Holesky, with the potential of consolidating client releases to accelerate mainnet activation.

Further Developments

No updates regarding PeerDAS, an enhancement aimed at blob scalability set for the Fusaka upgrade, were communicated during this call. However, a developer going by “Pop” suggested three new fields for the Ethereum Node Records (ENR) specifications, which would facilitate node connectivity for both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. These modifications are backward compatible and can be adopted independently of Pectra.

In conclusion, developers debated the denomination for the seventh upgrade of the consensus layer. “Gloas” was identified as the favored option, allowing for the portmanteau “Glamsterdam” for the integrated EL and CL upgrades, with the EL fork already designated as Amsterdam.

Image source: Shutterstock