Ethereum Core Devs Meeting 45 Agenda

[lrettig]

Ethereum Core Devs Meeting 45 Agenda

Meeting Date/Time: Friday 24 August 2018 at 14:00 UTC

Meeting Duration 1.5 hours

YouTube Live Stream Link

Livepeer Stream Link

Constantinople Progress

Agenda

1. Testing
2. Client Updates
3. Research Updates
4. Constantinople
   a. EIP 1014 Issues
   b. EIP 1218: Simpler blockhash refactoring. Looks like we are dropping this one unless someone speaks up, like, immediately.
   c. EIP 1283: 1283 is moving forward per discussions on the previous call and the core devs chat room.
5. Three competing EIPs to delay the difficulty bomb and reduce/maintain the block reward:
   a. EIP-858 - Delay bomb and reduce block reward to 1 ETH per block.
   b. EIP-1234 - Delay bomb and reduce block reward to 2 ETH.
   c. EIP-1295 - Delay bomb, keep rewards to 3 ETH, change other factors such as POW incentive structure.
   There is renewed interest from miners to implement ProgPoW.

Different articles/links regarding potential issuance reduction conversation:

• A Case for Ethereum Block Reward Reduction to 2 ETH in Constantinople (EIP-1234)
• Reddit discussion of the above article
• Coinvote (79 participants): What should be done regarding proof-of-work issuance until Casper is ready?
• FEM Forum: EIP-1234 vs EIP-1227: Constantinople Difficulty Bomb & Block reward
• Bitfly Twitter Post on Miner Opinion
• FEM Forum: Final Request From the GPU Mining Community
• EIP 1295 Presentation
• Ethereum’s Economic Breakpoint: An Analysis

[pcbacon]

Can we please talk about forking these ASICs again? EIP 958

[MadeofTin]

This was posted in the Magicians Forum and seemed pertinent.
https://ethereum-magicians.org/t/final-request-from-the-gpu-mining-community/1050/4

It also talks about adding EIP 958 to the discussion around the difficulty bomb.

[MadeofTin]

@lrettig when discussing miner sentiment (especially if some miners are able to join the call) I would love it for Miner Hashrate Signaling to be included in the discussion.

Specifically:

• What if any changes to the protocol need to be made to allow this to happen?
• Is this a candidate for an EIP?
• Could the changes required be made at the client level alone?
• Would miners like to see this implemented?
• How would miners like to see this implemented?

[zsfelfoldi]

I would like to participate this call and "champion" EIP-1218 which would indeed be very useful for trustless light client syncing. Actually I would like to propose a slightly extended version of it where the same contract would also store the total difficulty. I will write a short doc about the reasons why I think this should be included too.

[5chdn]

I'll be around to champion 1234 this week. I was sick during the last meeting, sorry.

Just some thoughts that I will raise before the call:

• 858: this does not address the difficulty bomb at all. Unless someone champions to discuss this, we should drop it in this discussion. I just brought it up recently because I'm pedantic and this indirectly conflicts 1234 but should not be the focus part of this debate. it does now.
• 1227: I have not seen a single voice (apart from the author) that wants to increase the block reward, so it's safe to say we go with either status quo or reduce it (1234). Can provide some references at the call.

Also, now that hybrid Casper is off the table, we should discuss 958 again (ASIC resistance), there is a strong community sentiment in favour of having this dealt with. Edit: Just noticed, 958 is not an actual EIP. Not sure how to discuss this properly then.

[olalawal]

the three EIPs related to issuance are worthless unless they include an ASIC forking algo change of some sort. The majority of ether is being mined by large asic farms and bitmain in particular, when pos launches they will hold the majority of mined ether. For the good of the protocol they should be forked off if you intend to reduce issuance in a meaningful way

[cslarson]

@5chdn, 858 shouldn't be discussed because it's justification is not necessarily tied to the delay of the difficulty bomb? That seems strange when it's received community support through numerous discussions as well as a coinvote. EIP 858 could be edited to include a difficulty bomb delay or a separate EIP could be authored. Without a bomb delay the network would halt. Nobody is arguing for that.

[atlanticcrypto]

@lrettig Please include EIP-1295 in this discussion (https://github.com/ethereum/EIPs/blob/master/EIPS/eip-1295.md)

[chfast]

Small fix for EIP-1014: ethereum/EIPs#1247.

[cslarson]

Since it will hopefully make the relevant discussions easier I've made modifications (pending pull request) to EIP 858 to include delaying the difficulty bomb.

[sorpaas]

A small update on EIP-1283: Based on work by @chfast (ethereum/tests#483), I added 17 test cases to the spec, with the two additional ones testing a slot being reset and then set again (https://github.com/ethereum/EIPs/blob/master/EIPS/eip-1283.md#test-cases).

[atlanticcrypto]

Presentation on EIP-1295 can be found here:

tinyurl.com/ycjec3no

[chfast]

@sorpaas can you add the two additional test cases to ethereum/tests#483 ?

[nico9111]

Can we drop EIP-1227- Delay bomb and increase block reward to 5 ETH? It looks like a joke...

Edit: let me make myself clear:
Looking at the current price situation, if inflation i.e miners rewards remain the same or even worse increase, then that’s straight to double digits and then forget the network security, investors and miners’ profits. It’ll all go down in flame. Even Joe Lubin, super bullish on everything Ethereum fears about price going to unsustainable levels.
If rewards reduction means a change in the algo to limit asics then fine. Anyhow mining will end when POS is launched but what is of the utmost importance is what happens in the meantime. Do we let it all go down the toilets because we can’t make a common sense decision or do we act like rational people and let the journey continue. I’m working an a dapp to be supported on Ethereum and would love nothing more than to be able to continue my journey as well...