EVM Gazette – January 26, 2026
Issue #20
Highlights
Monad upgraded to 0.12.6.
Hardhat released v3.1.5.
EIL team introduces WeissChannels.
Monad is discussing improvement proposals MIP-3 & MIP-4.
AllCoreDevs Update
Nothing big for this past week, as the call was ACDC. However, it was noted that BALs (EIP-7928) will increase block sizes by 100% (~70-80 KiB).
Ethereum News & Discussion
EF’s Protocol Support Team released the 8th edition of Checkpoint, a summary of recent AllCoreDevs calls.
In case you haven’t been following, there’s been active discussion on the thread for Nick Mudge’s ERC-8019: “Diamonds, Simplified”.
Vitalik wrote posts on
donnoh_eth wrote an article on external bridges vs rollups’ security councils.
Ethrex shared a video demonstrating synchronous composability.
zerosnacks wrote a post about a new Foundry release.
Research Update
Crypto Native Cash: Bridging physical Cash and DeFi by Citrullin
A crypto-native cash system is proposed that binds on-chain assets to NFC-enabled physical banknotes via an ERC‑4337 smart-account governance model with distinct keys for physical possession, regulatory authority, and economic ownership, enabling cash-like offline micropayments, authority-gated high-value transfers, recoverability from physical loss, and psychologically intuitive onboarding into DeFi through tangible, programmable money.
Worst-Case Block Size and Calldata Repricing for Glamsterdam by Nero_eth
The post analyzes how Ethereum’s current calldata and access list gas pricing still permits adversarially large worst-case block sizes under Glamsterdam and proposes two complementary EIPs—repricing access lists as calldata and raising or flattening calldata byte costs—to tightly couple gas usage to raw data size, thereby improving worst-case propagation guarantees and enabling safe future block gas limit increases.
AI Agent assisted merit driven token distribution by Citrullin
TinyMeritRank proposes a soulbound AI–mediated, Sybil-resistant token distribution protocol that replaces attention and airdrop farming with verifiable, network-evaluated advancement, using Personalized PageRank-based reputation, staged committee scoring, and slashing mechanisms to align incentives toward constructive contributions and make malicious behavior economically unprofitable.
A small step towards data-driven protocol decisions - Unified SlowBlock metrics across clients by CPerezz (original proposal and spec by rjl493456442)
The post proposes a standardized, cross-client framework for Ethereum execution-layer “slow block” metrics—defining common JSON fields for timing, state access, throughput, and cache behavior—aimed at enabling comparable performance analysis across clients, supporting data-driven protocol decisions (e.g., EIP evaluation), improving network health monitoring and anomaly detection, and inviting further extensions such as per-transaction metrics, opcode counts, and detailed Merkleization statistics.
A smart contract–callable trading infrastructure is proposed that, via a deterministic off-chain engine and oracle-style cross-chain gateway, enables on-chain protocols on any chain to invoke exchange-grade spot and perpetual trading with advanced order types while materializing positions as composable on-chain assets, thereby transforming trading from an isolated venue into programmable execution infrastructure for DeFi.
Second Thoughts: How 1-second subslots transform CEX-DEX Arbitrage on Ethereum by nuconstruct (research in collaboration with AnteroE)
Reducing Ethereum’s slot time from 12 seconds to 1‑second subslots, modeled via a risk‑averse CEX–DEX arbitrageur facing probabilistic DEX execution and calibrated to Binance/Uniswap v3 data, increases arbitrage transaction counts by roughly 5x and volumes by about 2x by compressing outcome variance, expanding the set of risk‑adjusted profitable opportunities—especially in low‑fee pools—and revealing substantial latent demand for faster on-chain execution.
Web3 collateralized bonds by Citrullin
A framework for Web3 collateralized bonds is proposed in which ERC‑3475/4626-based, risk‑tranchified credit portfolios are collateralized by real‑world supply chains via Web2 APIs and governed by AI‑driven social reputation systems, with the aim of reproducing and surpassing traditional bond markets’ risk–return profiles entirely on‑chain.
Reducing BAL Size with 10 GigaGas/s EVM Throughput in the Presence of I/O by Po, Qi Zhou
A performance evaluation of three block-level access list (BAL) designs for Ethereum shows that a minimal “parallel I/O BAL,” which omits read values and explicit read hints, can still deliver approximately 78% of the execution throughput of a full, read-heavy BAL (10.8 vs. 13.9 GGas/s on a 16-core machine) while reducing BAL size to about one-third, thereby establishing a practical upper bound on BAL-enabled parallelism and motivating parallel I/O BAL as the preferred throughput–overhead trade-off for future L1 scaling.
RFC: Endogenous Parameterization for Post-Asset Economies (The Ontological Protocol v3.3) by SkopiaOutis
A DAG-based, thermodynamically grounded “Ontological Protocol” is proposed that endogenously prices information via proof-of-sacrifice burns, quantifies causal attribution using algorithmic information theory–based compression, and enforces non-decaying structural persistence, with a cybernetic PID-controlled minting mechanism tuned to a branching ratio near unity to support deep yet non-spammy causal chains, thereby addressing AI attribution and value flow measurement in post-asset, zero-marginal-cost economies without reliance on external oracles or governance.
Native DVT for Ethereum staking by vbuterin
A protocol-level extension to Ethereum staking is proposed that natively supports simple, threshold-based distributed validator configurations by allowing a single overfunded validator to register multiple “virtual identities” with M-of-N signing, thereby achieving DVT-like fault tolerance, improved security, and greater decentralization without reliance on complex off-chain coordination or BLS linearity.
Economic take from a Philosopher - Attempt for a new Economic Model (OS) by SkopiaOutis
Proposes an ontologically grounded, cybernetic reformulation of capitalism—“The Ontological Protocol”—that reintroduces ethics as thermodynamically and biologically compatible feedback constraints on an otherwise hegemonic, formally value-neutral economic operating system whose assimilation of democracy has undermined its own long‑term sustainability.
New EIPs/ERCs
EIP-8130 – Account Abstraction by Account Configuration
EIP-8131 – Add Auth Data to EIP-7623 Floor
EIP-8133 – Add EIP for Ethereum Upgrade Nomenclature
EIP-XXXX – Cell-Level Deltas for Data Column Broadcast
ERC-8129 – Non-Transferable Token
ERC-8132 – Wallet Call Gas Limit Override Capability
ERC-XXXX – WeissChannels - Cross-Chain Execution for ERC-4337 Accounts
Client and Client-Related Updates
Tooling, Languages & Libraries
Weasel released v0.5.0
Silverback released 0.7.37
Voltaire released v0.2.15
Alloy released v1.5.2
Aderyn released v0.6.8
Hardhat v3.1.5
L2s and EVM Alt-L1s
Monad mainnet upgraded to 0.12.6.
Monad is discussing MIP-3, a proposal to change the cost of additional memory to be linear instead of quadratic.
Monad is discussing MIP-4: a new opcode for reserve balance introspection.
Stable will be upgrading to v1.2.0 on February 4, which will include changes like USDT0 being the gas token.
The docs for Monad’s Validator Delegation Program are live.