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takes on BLS384 vs EIP2537 (and general sentiment regarding updates to #ethereum). The following thread is strictly my own opinion and not of the geth team.
Today we had a call regarding two proposals that basically do the same thing, support the BLS12-381 curve in ethereum
takes on BLS384 vs EIP2537 (and general sentiment regarding updates to #ethereum). The following thread is strictly my own opinion and not of the geth team.Today we had a call regarding two proposals that basically do the same thing, support the BLS12-381 curve in ethereum
This curve is important for things like account abstraction, #eth2, ZK-applications and interoperability with other chains. One of the proposals adds ~600 LoC while the other adds ~15.500 LoC to #geth's codebase. The second one is faster and way more gas efficient than the former
However the former allows for other (smaller) curves to be implemented as well. I generally favor the former approach since less lines means less errors in a highly critical part of #ethereum. Less lines also means it is way easier for me to validate the changes and approve them.
Additionally in the case it really goes sideways, it is way easier and faster to find a fix and ship a patch to the community. One calculation I frequently do is: "Is this proposal worth implementing if it breaks a 140 billion dollar system?" Spoiler: it rarely is.
I know that this is a very bitcoin-y approach to it, but I think ethereum has outgrown it's phase of just some dudes hacking away. Big industries are starting to get build on it and rely on the base layer being as resilient as possible. So keeping the base layer save is imo
more important than adding a cool new feature for one or two projects. This is also why I hesitate supporting EIP-1559. While it can reduce issuance and make block space more elastic it also increases the surface for DDOS attacks. EIP-1559 would burn ~$1.000.000 in tx fees daily.
If ethereum breaks due to a consensus issue, especially if it DDOS'd over a longer period of time (like the shanghai attacks). During those attacks the price went down by 10%, similar attacks today would be even more devastating.
All in all what I wanted to convey with this rant is that proposals that touch the #ethereum consensus are really hard to judge and I'm more for the "better safe than sorry" side of things.
