The meeting began with technical testing of screen sharing features and a discussion about an upcoming ETH Boulder event. The main focus was on Ethereum development, including the implementation of optional and mandatory proofs, zkVM integration, and various work streams related to protocol phases and execution payload validation. The team reviewed multiple projects including consensus layer integration, proof engine implementation, server infrastructure options, and security initiatives, while also discussing threat modeling, hardware requirements, and cryptography tracks.
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The meeting began with technical testing of screen sharing features, where Cody and Kevaundray confirmed successful screen sharing with appropriate adjustments for readability. The discussion then shifted to an upcoming ETH Boulder event starting Friday, with Ladislaus noting 30-35 people had signed up. The conversation ended with Kevaundray introducing a breakout call for L1ZM, explaining that these calls are used in Ethereum for projects scheduled to be shipped in a hard-fork, and Justin inquired about recording, which was confirmed to be ongoing.
The meeting focused on the development and implementation of optional and mandatory proofs in Ethereum, with Kevaundray providing an overview of the roadmap and work streams. He explained the phases of the protocol, including the builder, proposer, and attester roles, and highlighted the challenges with current execution payload validation. The discussion also covered the role of zkVMs in solving these issues and the eight work streams involved in the project. Participants asked questions about the expected size of zkVM proofs and verification times, which Kevaundray addressed.
The team discussed incentive mechanisms for provers, with Julien focusing on integration and verification time measurements ranging from 70 to 100 milliseconds. Ignacio presented updates on two projects: one involving standardized execution witnesses for guest programs, where he is working with Peter from the STEEL team on a generalized state tracker, and another project to define and standardize a guest program specification that includes state transition functions, Engine API blockchain validations, and execution witness validations. The team also discussed EIP 8025 implementation for Etherex and REST clients, which involves Engine API-related checks in Rust.
Marcin presented two main projects: the development of zkVM interface standards and an exploration of compiling languages like Go and C# to bare-metal zkVM targets via WebAssembly. The standards aim to reduce integration complexity for execution clients by providing a common foundation for zkVMs to integrate with execution clients, including standardized RISC-V targets, C interfaces for precompiles, and I/O operations. Marcin also discussed the potential of expanding language support beyond Rust and C++ by compiling high-level languages to WebAssembly first, then to RISC-V, though initial benchmarks showed a significant performance overhead. The team discussed the compatibility of these standards with other projects, such as automated precompiles and Wasm integration, and considered the implications for guest programs using auto-precompiles.
Francesco presented an update on the consensus layer integration, focusing on the Engine API and the new payload request structure. He explained the relationship between data types in the consensus specs and highlighted the introduction of the proof engine, which works with the new payload request header and the ExecutionPayload header. Francesco also described the proof generation process and the proof gossip protocol, emphasizing the need to prevent forks and the inability to slash for invalid proofs. He noted that the specs may change, but the current construction aims to address these challenges.
Francesco presented progress on the proof engine implementation, including signature verification and integration between the beacon chain and proof engine. Manu shared updates on adapting the Prysm codebase and implementing a standalone dummy prover. Han discussed the approval infrastructure project, focusing on ERA and ZK Boost for providing execution proofs to consensus. The team is working on integrating the stack into the Ethereum package and cleaning up to follow EIP 825 specifications.
The team discussed server infrastructure options, with Stefan presenting a comparison of building vs buying vs renting servers for GPU computation. He outlined a proposed setup of 4 GPUs per server in a 4-server cluster with 100GB networking, using Threadripper Pro CPUs with 8 cores per GPU and 8 RAM slots to maximize PCI bandwidth. The do-it-yourself option was estimated at $570 per year for 3-year ownership, significantly cheaper than pre-built systems or cloud rental, with a monthly co-location cost of $8,500 and a $16,500 setup fee.
George presented an update on the zkEVM security sprint, which aims to enhance zkEVM security to 128 bits over the year in three milestones. He introduced a visualization of the timeline and milestones and discussed integrating inner segment lookups into Soundcalc for proof system security. Cody presented a report on Project 7, outlining high-level security goals and initiatives, including optional proofs in Ethereum, hardware requirements, and threat modeling. The team discussed the need for consensus on threat models, minimum test requirements for optional proofs, and the importance of uncorrelated proofs and diversity in zkVMs. They also touched on the need for internal hardware validation and incident response planning.
Alex presented updates on three tracks: RISCVM, EVM, and cryptography. The RISCVM track has completed extracting the RISC-V cell specification to Lean and achieved proof completion for resource sockets of several zkVMs. The EVM track is in flux due to new guest programs and target standardization, with ongoing verification efforts and tool development. The cryptography track is working on formal verification of cryptographic primitives and proof systems. Fara demonstrated the ETH proofs staging app for onboarding new teams and testing zkVMs. The group discussed the process for new guest program teams to sign up for ETH proofs, with Fara confirming it’s acceptable to do so even if not immediately ready to participate.