Vitalik On Enhancing Validator Efficiency

Quick Take

• Vitalik’s approaches to enhance PoS.
• EIP-7212 transitions into the first RIP.
• Thunder Terminal suffers an exploit.
• EtherFi reaches $100 million TVL.

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Vitalik On Limiting Signatures For SSF

Vitalik Buterin proposed to limit Ethereum's signature aggregation to 8,192 per slot once Single-Slot Finality (SSF) is live. Buterin recognizes that Ethereum's large validator count, which promotes decentralization, leads to a large number of needed signatures, complicating the implementation of SSF and signature SNARKing. Buterin proposes three approaches to limit signatures. The first is prioritizing decentralized staking pools, setting a minimum deposit of 4,096 ETH and a capped validator count, while also reducing slashing penalties. The second approach is a two-layer system with a 'heavy' layer for block finalization, requiring a 4,096 ETH minimum stake, and a 'light' layer for attestation without a minimum stake. The third approach involves a rotating committee system based on stake size, balancing ETH distribution among validators. Buterin says the changes not only simplify upgrades for technical implementers, but it would also reduce the barrier to run a consensus client.

Rollup Improvement Proposal 7212

Clave researcher Dogan announced that EIP-7212, a standard that enables secure and cost-effective signature verifications on the secp256r1 elliptic curve, is now a Rollup Improvement Proposal (RIP). RIPs are standards that are specific to L2s and aim to be compatible across rollups. 7212 is designed to enhance account abstraction. According to Dogan, RIP-7212 is set to be integrated with zkSync, OP Stack, Polygon PoS, Polygon zkEVM, and Evmos ecosystems. A last call for RIP-7212  is scheduled for January 4th. The last call is the final review window where specifications are finalized before an improvement proposal becomes final.

Thunder Terminal Suffers Exploit

Thunder Terminal, a multi-chain trading platform, experienced an exploit leading to the loss of over $200k worth of user assets. The attack originated from a breach in a third-party provider, enabling an attacker to acquire user session tokens, which were used to execute unauthorized withdrawals from user accounts. In response, Thunder revoked all existing connection URLs and session tokens to prevent further unauthorized transactions. The platform confirmed that no private keys were compromised in the attack. Thunder has committed to refunding the 114 users impacted by the breach. The initial compromise occurred 8 days before the actual attack, resulting in the leak of user data.

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