Why one Ethereum dev wants to make the network 33% faster

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GM, Tim here.

• Devs propose changes to help Ethereum scale.
• DeFi reduces crypto thefts, according to one security firm.
• EigenLayer loses $5.5 million to a hacker.

Speeding up Ethereum

Ethereum developers just proposed two ways to increase the number of transactions the blockchain can process:

• Core developer Giulio Rebuffo wants to introduce a way to increase the block gas limit — which would raise the number of transactions that can be included in blocks on the network.
• Ben Adams, a contributor to Ethereum client Nethermind, proposed reducing Ethereum’s slot time to boost transaction throughput by 33%.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin previously suggested increasing the network’s gas limit.

The proposals could trigger a larger push to increase Ethereum’s performance.

Ethereum is still the biggest smart contract network by far.

But in recent years, it has lost ground to newer, faster rivals like Solana. There’s also growing opinion in the Ethereum community that layer 2 networks, once heralded as a way to help the network scale, are not a good solution.

The proposed changes may have downsides.

Increasing the block gas limit, as Rebuffo wants, could make it more difficult for individuals to run Ethereum validators from home.

The ease of running validators is a key part of Ethereum’s commitment to decentralisation.

DeFi reduces thefts

Crypto experts have urged DeFi to get better at security — it looks like they listened.

DeFi hacks have fallen by a quarter in the first nine months of 2024 compared to all of 2023, according to data from TRM Labs.

Instead, it’s centralised exchanges and custodians that have been fleeced the most.

According to web3 security firm Cyvers, hacking incidents involving centralised exchanges and custodians have grown about 1,000%, to $401 million, over last year.

Those CEX losses share a common theme ― an attack on the platform’s infrastructure that ultimately exposed the private keys of their crypto wallets.

As those building DeFi protocols learn from past mistakes and ensure their code is free from bugs, it has become comparatively easier for hackers to compromise private keys.

EigenLayer slammed

Restaking protocol EigenLayer is under fire after a hacker tricked one of its employees into sending them $5.5 million worth of its EIGEN token.

Many in the DeFi community criticised how the project sent out tokens to investors via direct transfers instead of setting up smart contracts to do the distribution automatically, allowing such a theft to occur.

EigenLayer said it is in contact with law enforcement, and that some of the stolen funds have already been frozen.

It’s the latest controversy to befall the protocol, which at its height attracted $20 billion of deposits.

EigenLayer was previously criticised for its handling of its first EIGEN token airdrop.

This week in DeFi governance

VOTE: Uniswap DAO elects two new members for its accountability committee

VOTE: Lido DAO approves the Community Staking Module, the protocol’s first-ever permissionless staking module

VOTE: Synthetix votes to overhaul its token and reboot its governance

Post of the week

Ethereum gas fees are creeping up again, making the network deflationary once more. But will it last?

Got a tip about DeFi? Reach out at tim@dlnews.com.