The L1 Weekly Report is published every Friday, focusing on the development of Layer 1 blockchains. If you have any suggestions, feel free to contact pgnodexyz@gmail.com.

Bitcoin

• Signet faucet using TRUC and RBF
• Spanning-forest cluster linearization
  • This is a write-up about a work in progress cluster linearization algorithm that appeared (and may still be) promising as a replacement for the ones described in the currently-implemented algorithms (Bitcoin Core PRs 30126, 30285, 30286 and Delving posts on linearization and related algorithms).
• Which ephemeral anchor script should lightning use?
  • In this post, explore the various options available for the ephemeral anchor output used in future lightning commitment transactions that use nVersion = 3. We could go in a few different directions, and every option has a different set of trade-offs.
• Erlay: Define fanout rate based on the transaction reception method
  • This post is part of Erlay implementation experiments. The thesis is that for optimal network bandwidth in transaction relaying, fanout rate should vary based on transaction propagation state. Since nodes lack precise knowledge of transaction spread, an alternative is to base fanout rate on how a transaction was received.
• Minimal signing flow changes for TRUC channels
  • To mitigate pinning against Lightning channels, all commitment and preimage - claim transactions should use TRUC. For local commitment preimage claims, presign HTLC - Success transactions as v3. For remote ones, start presigning as v3 by exchanging signatures during commitment update.

Ethereum

• Delayed Execution And Skipped Transactions
  • A proposed solution, known as Delayed Execution, offers an elegant approach by decoupling block validation from immediate transaction execution. In this post, I’ll go through how this mechanism works and what it could mean for scaling.
• ULTRA TX - Programmable blocks: One transaction is all you need for a unified and extendable Ethereum
  • ULTRA TX aims to achieve programmable L1 blocks. It combines the L1 meta tx bundler and rollup block builders to create a master builder that builds L1 blocks with a single powerful transaction. This enables seamless L1 - L2 aggregation and interaction, shared data handling, atomicity, provability, and more. It has advantages like simple aggregation, shared data compression, and customizable security, but also faces challenges such as the need for real - time proving and high - sophistication block builders. L1 functionality can be extended, and synchronous composability between L1 and L2 can be achieved following a specific process. Parallelization is possible for greater throughput, and the framework GLUE will generalize its use for all rollups.
• zkFOCIL: Inclusion List Privacy using Linkable Ring Signatures
  • The article proposes zkFOCIL, a protocol enhancing FOCIL (EIP - 7805) privacy. It uses Linkable Ring Signatures (LRS) to hide the identity of includers in the beacon chain’s inclusion list process. The protocol involves key generation by validators, a lottery to select includers based on LRS key images, and signing inclusion lists with LRS. An LRS scheme based on zk - SNARKs is presented, with its pros (efficiency, no trusted setup) and cons (complexity, key - usage issues). Performance requirements for LRS are set, and the scheme offers security properties like fair lottery, winner - hiding, anonymity, and unforgeability. Future work suggestions include anonymous reward mechanisms, studying LRS anonymity attacks, networking anonymity, and an Ethereum DHT anonymous credential scheme.
• LazyTower: An O(1) Replacement for Incremental Merkle Trees
  • LazyTower is a data structure. Its purpose is the same as an Incremental Merkle Tree (IMT): to allow users to incrementally append items, and to support zero-knowledge proofs of membership.
• Fabric - Fabric to Accelerate Based Rollup Infrastructure & Connectivity
  • The Ethereum rollup ecosystem has grown rapidly, and based rollups have advanced significantly. To drive the based rollup ecosystem forward, teams propose “Fabric,” a community effort. Fabric aims to standardize components for based rollups, with design principles like open - source development, minimizing stack lock - in, modularity, and minimized governance. It includes L1 and L2 components, leaving some layers open for custom implementations. The initiative is in progress, with a near - term roadmap focusing on design consensus, funding, and development. It doesn’t compete with existing efforts but aims to reduce development friction. FAQs address common concerns, and the community is invited to contribute.
• ETH Issuance Discovery Research: Issuance Debate & Case Studies By Staking Cohort
  • This research, funded by cyber•Fund and conducted by FranklinDAO, analyzes an ETH issuance reduction proposal. It first overviews ETH staking and the proposal. Through interviews with various stakeholders, it finds that the proposal affects different staking actors differently. For example, solo stakers are vulnerable, while some large entities may be less affected. The research also profiles key actors and analyzes the impact on centralization. It concludes that the proposal may not address the core issue of centralization in staking. Instead, it might exacerbate the problem as smaller players suffer more. Ethereum faces challenges like potential institutional money influx and LST - related concerns, and solo stakers need support.
• ZK-EVM Prover Input Standardization
  • The article proposes a standardized data format for ZK-EVM prover inputs to enable real-time block proving. With the ZK-EVM block proving ecosystem growing, different engines accept vendor - specific inputs, which is a problem. The proposed format includes version, blocks, blocks’ witness, and chain configuration. It aims to facilitate multi - proof infrastructure and create a standard interface. The format can be batched, stored on data availability layers or shared buckets, and extended to other EVM chains. There are discussions on the best format and compression methods, and the standard is designed to be ZK-EVM vendor - agnostic, leaving vendor - specific processing to individual engines.
• State tree preimages file generation
  • This article delves into the generation of state tree preimages in the context of Ethereum’s protocol evolution. As Ethereum plans to replace the current Merkle Patricia Trie (MPT) with a new tree (like Verkle or Binary Tree) to achieve statelessness and SNARKify L1, a strategy is needed to migrate existing data. The proposed approach, using an Overlay Tree (EIP-7612 + EIP-7748), requires nodes to resolve MPT key preimages for accounts and storage tries. However, most Execution Layer (EL) clients don’t store these preimages.
• Three-Tier staking (3TS) - Unbundling Attesters, Includers and Execution Proposers
  • The Ethereum ecosystem is considering a Three-Tier Staking (3TS) model. Given the challenges of having validators handle all protocol tasks, this model unbundles roles into execution proposers, attesters, and includers. All stakers are in a unified pool and can opt into one or more roles based on their preferences and capital.