• Ethereum Protocol Attackathon goes live.

• Voting opens for ZIP-001.

• Farcaster Frames V2 specification.

• Phantom supports Base.

The Ethereum Foundation introduced the first-ever Ethereum Protocol Attackathon, a large-scale crowdsourced security audit contest hosted on Immunefi. With a $1.5 million prize pool, the competition invites both auditing firms and individual security researchers to identify critical vulnerabilities in the Ethereum protocol. The event runs from November 25, 2024, to January 20, 2025. The Attackathon Academy offers technical walkthroughs and educational content to prepare participants. During the competition, researchers can hunt for bugs while having direct access to project teams. After the event, Immunefi will showcase the results through a leaderboard, detailed reports, and NFT awards.

Voting is now open for the first ZKsync Improvement Proposal (ZIP), titled "Protocol Defense." The proposal focuses on improving code readability, maintainability, gas efficiency, and compatibility with Ethereum standards. Key updates include adopting custom errors, implementing stricter linting rules, introducing floating compiler versions, and applying minor gas optimizations. The proposal also enables chains to charge for the overhead of Layer 1 interactions. The enhancements are fully backward-compatible with no disruption to existing contracts or applications. The changes were audited by OpenZeppelin with no critical or high-severity issues found. Voting will remain open until December 2nd.

Farcaster introduced the Frames V2 specification, a revamped standard designed to tackle developer challenges, such as slow image rendering and limited functionality for interactive apps. The update enables developers to build interactive apps that support onchain transactions, user notifications, and enhanced interactivity. Frames are applications that are seamlessly integrated into Farcaster apps. Developers can leverage Frames to create dynamic features and responsive in-cast commands. With the Frames SDK, developers gain access to tools for saving frames, initiating onchain transactions, and enabling wallet interactions. Key updates include context access, action APIs, and Ethereum wallet provider integration. Currently, in a draft stage, Frames v2 is set to launch in the coming week.

Mobile and browser-based wallet Phantom rolled out support for transactions on Base for all users. Phantom users can now seamlessly swap tokens between Base and Solana, as well as interact with Base's DeFi and NFT applications. The addition makes Base the first Layer 2 network supported on Phantom.

• Get Involved with Ethereum

• MetaMask suffers RPC outage

• Same Slot vs. Next Slot Inclusion List

• Hashdex S-1 ETH/BTC Index ETF

• Perena launches Numeraire stable pool

• Optimism releases a guide to Season 7 governance.

• Discussion on increasing the gas limit.

• EF seeks to hire a Protocol Security Engineer.

Optimism released its guide to Season 7 Governance, the next phase of the Optimism Collective, starting on January 16, 2025. Season 7 focuses on advancing the Superchain Product Vision, with interoperability as the core intent. The goal is to achieve Stage 1 interoperable chains processing $250m in monthly cross-chain asset transfers. Key priorities for the season include governance enhancements to facilitate interoperability, protocol upgrades to enable cross-chain functionality, delegation of funding decisions through missions and councils, and continued progress toward technical decentralization. OP Delegates will soon vote on Missions and the ratification of the Interoperability Blockspace Charter.

Ethereum educator Anthony Sassano called for a community temperature check on raising the block gas limit on Ethereum. Sassano supports a phased increase in increments of 10 million, starting from the current 30 million gas limit to 60 million. Gnosis founder Martin Köppelmann also advocates for an increase to 40 million. A 10 million gas increment could potentially reduce Layer 1 transaction fees by an estimated 15-33%. Notably, implementing a gas limit increase does not require a hard fork; validators can adopt the change by adjusting their node configurations. Several solo stakers, including mariano.eth—who spearheads the pumpthegas.org initiative—have already set their gas limit to 40 million.

The Ethereum Foundation is looking to hire a Protocol Security Engineer to join its Protocol Security Research Team. The role focuses on enhancing the security of the Ethereum protocol through activities such as auditing the software stack (including execution and consensus layer clients), developing fuzzers for the protocol’s networking layer, conducting security research, and collaborating with client teams and researchers to mitigate security risks. The position is fully remote and open to candidates worldwide.

• Support Roman Storm’s defense

• Introducing Lens Groups

• Bonsai AI agent

• Presentation: Ethereum as a commons

• Base surpasses $80b volume on Uniswap

• 15 open roles at Arbitrum

• SEC Chairman Gary Gensler resigns.

• Court strikes down the SEC’s Dealer Rule.

• The Graph introduces GRC-20.

• Celestia outlines its Lazybridging endgame.

SEC Chairman Gary Gensler announced his resignation from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), effective January 20, 2025. Appointed in April 2021, Gensler gained a reputation for aggressively pursuing enforcement actions against crypto projects, including ConsenSys, Uniswap, Coinbase, and Kraken. Gensler faced criticism for inconsistent statements about what constitutes a security and for urging crypto projects to “come in and register” while providing little regulatory clarity on digital asset classifications. The resignation coincides with the inauguration of a new administration, signaling a shift toward more friendly crypto regulation.

A U.S. court ruled against the SEC’s recently implemented Dealer Rule, striking it down and rendering it unenforceable. The lawsuit was brought by the Crypto Freedom Alliance of Texas and the Blockchain Association, two nonprofit organizations advocating for cryptocurrency policy. The plaintiffs argued that the rule unlawfully targeted entities operating in DeFi markets. The court found that the SEC exceeded its statutory authority under the Exchange Act, concluding that the rule’s definition of "dealer" improperly included activities that fall outside the traditional scope of securities dealing. Uniswap founder Hayden Adams said the decision was a big win for DeFi. 

The Graph, a blockchain indexing protocol, introduced GRC-20, a proposed data standard aimed at structuring, sharing, and connecting information across applications. By creating a common language for knowledge, GRC-20 seeks to enable verifiable, open, and composable applications. The framework is built around three key components: Spaces, Entities, and Types. Spaces organize knowledge into public, personal, or private groups. Entities represent concepts or objects as nodes, with relations connecting them. Types provide structure by defining the fields and attributes of entities. GRC-20 is currently in a draft phase and is open for public feedback.

Celestia outlined its Lazybridging endgame, a proposed feature designed to deliver a seamless user experience for interacting across multiple rollups and blockchains. Lazybridging seeks to simplify interactions, making them as intuitive and straightforward as using a single chain. The feature leverages Celestia's single-slot finality and advancements in ZK proving to enable fast and efficient asset transfers across chains.

• Case for EIP-7732 in Fusaka

• MORPHO delegation is live

• Presentation: ETH is permissionless money

• L2Beat integrates UOPS metric

• Introducing too many bridges

• Renzo integrates Coinbase validators

• Charles Schwab gets into spot crypto market

• Solana ETF 19b-4 filings