The Protocol: Reinvent Ethererum, and Just Don’t Break Bitcoin

Loyal
readers
of
The
Protocol
will
recall
that
we
launched
this
newsletter
on
April
26,
2023,
to
cover
technological
developments
across
the
blockchain
industry,
after
winding
down
its
predecessor,
Valid
Points,
which
was

focused
exclusively
on
Ethereum.
(In
case
you’re
interested
in
that
history,
we
wrote

here
about
how
we
turned
$15,000
into
$70,000
running
an
Ethereum
validator.)
We
started
covering
Bitcoin
technology
in
the
newsletter
along
with
Solana
and
Cosmos
and
Sui
and
everything
else.
Over
time,
the
format
evolved,
and
got
a
bit
longer
—
as
I
increasingly
geeked
out
over
blockchain
tech
and
found
myself
incrementally
incompetent
at
leaving
cool
stuff
out.
I
say
that
with
utmost
earnestness,
because
as
the
main
author
of
The
Protocol,
I
also
got
more
and
more

snarky
and

cynical
and

jaded
about
the
various
news
developments,
especially
regarding
the
money
end
of
the
business,
while
simultaneously
getting
more
and
more
wowed
by
all
of
the
developers
and
entrepreneurs
in
this
space
coming
out
with
hundreds
of
fascinating
projects
and
updates
every
week,
as
duly
highlighted
in
the

Protocol
Village
column.
We
launched
an
accompanying
podcast
that

got
really
good
until
it
was,
er,
paused
indefinitely
earlier
this
year
due
to
the
lack
of
a
sponsor
and
departure
of
our
producer.

BEAMING
IN
FROM
BANGKOK:
At
Ethereum’s
Devcon
conference
in
Bangkok
on
Tuesday,
Ethereum
Foundation
researcher

Justin
Drake
revealed
his
proposal
for
a

major
redesign
of
Ethereum’s
consensus
layer
called
“Beam
Chain.”
Beam
Chain
is
“a
proposed
redesign
of
the
consensus
layer
that
incorporates
all
of
the
latest
and
greatest
ideas
from
the
Ethereum
roadmap,”
Drake
said
in
a
speech
at
Bangkok’s
Queen
Sirikit
National
Convention
Centre.
Drake’s
Beam
Chain
vision
organizes
a
series
of
“big
ticket”
upgrades
to
Ethereum’s
consensus
layer
into
a
single
package.
The
changes
include
adjustments
to
Ethereum’s
block
production
apparatus,
as
well
as
how
it
handles
staking
and
zero-knowledge
cryptography.
Drake’s
presentation
was
highly
anticipated—coming
after
months
of
speculation
online
and
in
crypto
forums
that
the
influential
Ethereum
researcher,
who
was
instrumental
to
the
2022
Merge
upgrade,
was
working
on
something
major.
Drake
delivered
his
remarks
to
a
packed
convention
hall,
with
onlookers
spilling
out
into
the
hallway
outside
of
the
event’s
main
stage.
SEPARATELY,
CoinDesk
reported
last
week
that
the
dollar
value
of
the
Ethereum
Foundation’s
treasury

shrank
39%
over
2.5
years
to
$970
million.

A
group
of

top
Bitcoin
developers
collaborating
across
multiple
teams

claimed
a
breakthrough
on
the
oldest
and
largest
blockchain,
outlining
a
way
of
adding
a
type
of
programming
known
as
“covenants”
that
could
unlock
crucial
functionality
such
as
new
wallet
and
vault
features
and
more
efficient
layer-2
protocols.
Importantly,
the
technique
would
not
require
changes
to
Bitcoin’s
main
underlying
code,
a
notoriously
fraught
process
where
consensus
is
typically
seen
as
the
threshold
required
to
greenlight
major
upgrades
known
as
a
“soft
fork.”
The
announcement
was
detailed
on
Thursday
in
a

research
paper
titled,
“ColliderScript:
Covenants
in
Bitcoin
via
160-bit
hash
collisions.”
The
team
was
led
by

Ethan
Heilman,
who
separately
is
one
of
the
authors
of
a
proposed
technique
known
as

OP_CAT
that
could
increase
Bitcoin’s
programmability.
However,
that
effort
would
require
changes
to
the
Bitcoin
software,
as
would
a
separate
proposal
for
covenants
known
as
OP_CTV,
proposed
by
the
developer

Jeremy
Rubin.
Other
authors
of
the
new
research
paper
include
Victor
Kobolov
and
Avihu
Levy
of
the
StarkWare
project
and

Andrew
Poelstra,
a
longtime
Bitcoin
developer
who
currently
serves
as
head
of
research
at
Blockstream.

Linea,
the

rollup
blockchain
built
by
Ethereum
development
firm
Consensys,
is
on
the
brink
of
releasing
its
“LINEA”
token,
the
company

told
CoinDesk’s
Sam
Kessler.
Consensys
was
founded
by
Joe
Lubin,
one
of
the
co-founders
of
Ethereum,
and
is
today
best-known
as
the
company
behind
MetaMask,
the
most
popular
Ethereum
wallet.
The
Linea
network
was
released
last
year
and
represents
Consensys’
attempt
to
compete
with
a
growing
fray
of
layer-2
networks
—
blockchains
that
help
scale
Ethereum
by
offering
users
an
extra
lane
for
transacting
more
quickly
and
cheaply.

Roman
Sterlingov,
36,
a
Russian-Swedish
national
who
was
convicted
of

four
U.S.
federal
charges
related
to
running
the
no-longer-operational
bitcoin
mixing
service
Bitcoin
Fog,
was
sentenced
to
12
years
and
six
months,
the
Justice
Department
said
in
a

press
release.
Also,
“Sterlingov
was
sentenced
to
pay
a
forfeiture
money
judgment
in
the
amount
of
$395.6
million,
and
forfeiture
of
seized
cryptocurrencies
and
monetary
assets
valued
at
approximately
$1.76
million.
In
addition,
Sterlingov
was
ordered
to
forfeit
his
interest
in
the
Bitcoin
Fog
wallet,
totaling
approximately
1,345
BTC
and
currently
valued
at
more
than
$103
million,”
the
government
said.