Weekly update 2021-03-19

[artob]

Weekly update 2021-03-19

The weekly update on the forum is at:
https://gov.near.org/t/2021-03-19-evm-update/965

The recording is available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJrQyM7Sono&list=PL9tzQn_TEuFV2O7twBM-41lCDq5nr8nLm

Summary

• This week, we implemented native Eth1 transaction support in the EVM contract, continued integrating the ETH connector with the EVM contract, and continued work on a protocol upgrade to accelerate cryptographic functions used in the EVM contract.
• Next week, we are planning to finish integrating the ETH connector with the EVM contract, begin ingesting the Eth1 Goerli testnet through the EVM Bully stress-testing tool, and continue troubleshooting still failing Balancer tests with the new EVM contract.

Agenda

• Current goal
• This week
• Discussion
  • ETH connector integration
  • ETH gas vs NEAR gas
• Next week
  • OKR review and planning

Current goal

• TestNet release by the end of Q1

This week

Alex

• Mostly on the Bridge this week (released!)
  • Deployed the frontend earlier today
• Supported Kirill and Evgeny, tested the ETH connector on Ropsten.

Arto

• Continued developing the EVM contract (Aurora Engine):
  • Retiring the near-evm repository.
  • Implemented raw transactions (raw_call).
  • Currently working on precompiles.
  • Still to be implemented: meta-txs (meta_call).
  • https://github.com/aurora-is-near/aurora-engine
• Working on upstreaming SputnikVM enhancements.

Evgeny

• Finished the no_std ETH connector contract:
  • Resolved numerous pitfalls, but now ready for testing.
  • Currently testing with NEAR CLI, adding integration tests.
  • https://github.com/aurora-is-near/eth-connector
  • Pure no-std eth-connector implementation Near-One/eth-connector#10

Frank

• Continued work on the EVM Bully:
  • Extended the Bully to handle TestNet.
  • Implemented caching to avoid traversing back to genesis on each run.
  • Fixed bugs and added features to the Borsh library for Go.
  • Finished sending transactions to the EVM.
  • Working on invoking contract functions, replaying Goerli.
  • https://github.com/near/evm-bully
  • Extensions and important bug fix borsh-go#3

Joshua

• Created a Blake2 library for use in nearcore and the EVM contract:
  • Implemented changes for the F compression function.
  • Added tests as per the specification.
  • https://github.com/near/near-blake2
• Talked to Bo, both EKs, and AK about the host function additions.
• Worked on the Math API host function additions:
  • Implemented changes for the F compression function.
  • Working on measuring costs with the runtime-params-estimator.
  • Will move PR from draft to active review next week.
  • Extend the Math API with EVM precompiles #3954

Discussion

ETH connector integration

• Storage management
• Pure no-std eth-connector implementation Near-One/eth-connector#10
  • Illia will comment on the PR
  • Remove Serde in favor of a tiny JSON parser
  • Account management in the EVM contract, balance integration
  • Log parsing as a library
• Upgradability PR has a partial implementation of account management

Full stack with the relayer

• Discuss on Monday with Alex and the team

ETH gas vs NEAR gas

• Gas cost accounting to pay the relayer
• Give an understanding of gas costs:
  • ERC-20 transfer
  • Contract deployment (a well-known contract)
• Performance metric: the total gas consumed when replaying the first N blocks of Goerli.

Next week

OKR review and planning

• March 29: EVM TestNet soft launch
• The next two weeks will be a little disrupted

Illia's plans

• Upgradability (retarget the existing near-evm PR)
• Meta-transactions (port code from nearcore)