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The Ethereum Protocol Fellows recently completed their third successful cohort in February 2023. Their completion represents 4 months of extensive learning, research, and contribution to the core Ethereum ecosystem from a group of talented and dedicated Fellows. Before we look at the third group, let’s recap what Ethereum’s core development is and how EPF fits into its landscape.
Protocol development
At the heart of the Ethereum ecosystem lies the core development, research, and code that supports the Ethereum network, which includes client applications, specifications, and other core aspects.
Maintaining a healthy flow of core developers is crucial to Ethereum’s continued success. These developers and researchers collaborate to shape the direction of Ethereum’s evolving roadmap, address its various challenges, and implement solutions. Their efforts ensure that the protocol remains up-to-date and can handle the increasing demands placed on it by a growing user base.
However, jumping into core protocol development is no easy task. There is no formal organization managing the development of the protocol. The rapid progress of Ethereum protocol improvements, coupled with scattered information, can make it difficult for people to keep up. There are many areas and road map Goals to work on, each with their own rabbit holes to dive into.
The Ethereum Protocol Fellowship is designed as a solution to make core contribution easier with the aim of helping developers join different teams working on the protocol.
Protocol Fellowship
The Ethereum Protocol Fellowship (EPF) is a 4-month permissionless fellowship program that helps simplify the process of becoming a core developer.
The program is designed to give fellows the autonomy and independence required to work as a core developer. Participants choose their area of interest, propose a project, and work on it throughout the remainder of the program. They receive valuable feedback from existing core developers and become part of a community of like-minded individuals who are eager to learn by doing.
EPF projects are diverse and contribute to different areas, including research clients, consensus, implementation, testing, and protocol security. The EPF is completely open and permissionless, allowing anyone to follow and participate in the program. A portion of the budget is reserved to award premium contributions from non-permitted participants. Many EPF Fellows have made valuable contributions to the core Ethereum ecosystem, and some have secured long-term positions on core teams such as Lighthouse, Teku, Prysm, Ethereum Foundation Research, Flashbots, Optimism, and others.
Third regiment
Applications For the third cohort, which opened on September 1, 2022. After reviewing more than 600 applications and conducting numerous interviews, 23 participants were selected to join the official cohort. However, due to it being an unsanctioned program, the group ended up with a total of 36 contributors.
During the four-month period, fellows had the opportunity to work with 27 key developer mentors from across clients and research teams. Their work has been regularly reported in over 300 Weekly updates. Fellows also participated in weekly stand-up calls and office hours to share updates, discuss projects, and participate in AMA interview sessions with mentors and core developers.
In total, colleagues proposed and contributed 20 ProjectsSome are still receiving contributions. These projects represent not only a valuable learning experience, but also meaningful contributions to the Ethereum ecosystem.
EPF Third Regiment Projects
| project | a description |
|---|---|
| 4337 Bundler in Rust | The Collector implements the EIP-4337 AA as a standalone entity that can work alongside any implementation client |
| 4337 wallet | Browser extension wallet 4337 |
| 4844 All client | Contribute to the implementation of EIP-4844 in Lighthouse |
| Lightweight gateway network client | Building subprotocols for the Ultralight client |
| Client Consensus Reward APIs | A set of RESTful APIs to enhance interoperability across beacon node applications |
| Ethereum Monitor | A monitoring system for tracking network data and on-chain events |
| Helios CL P2P | Helios peer-to-peer networking service |
| Holon | Batch analytics software suite |
| Light CL client | Teku Light Client APIs |
| MEV in open games | MEV mechanics in an open game engine to analyze MEV strategies |
| Model Das | Rust implemented the Secure Kademlia DHT overlay on top of the diskv5 protocol |
| Prysm Beacon API compatible validator | Rewrote the Prysm validator code to be compatible with the standard Beacon API |
| Reduce confidence in the relay | A mechanism to reduce confidence in the PBS sequence |
| Revoke the auditor’s signing key | Revocation mechanism to allow auditors to improve their operational security |
| Exploring the Verkle Trie migration | R&D migration from Merkle Patricia Trying to Verkle Trying |
| Analysis of the staking pool certificate | Perform authentication analysis on key staking groups |
| Improve censorship resistance | A dashboard to track network health and block usage |
| P2P cell tests | Increase the scope of eth, discv4 and discv5 tests and add new tests for Ethereum implementation clients |
| Mitigating Geth DoS attacks | Implementation of the DoS defense scheme proposed in the DETER paper |
All program resources can be found at Store. You can follow all the activity in the group there, and check project resources, development updates, and colleague feedback. Not only are the projects FOSS contributions, but all work done within the group is completely open, being an actual part of Ethereum’s open research and resources.
But it’s not just about work and contributions. A crucial aspect of the EPF is the opportunity to meet many inspiring people who are involved in core development. During EthDenver, more than half the group gathered to participate in EPF Day, a full day of programming with Project presentationsDiscussions and social time.
Next batch coming soon
After the success of the third group, we are eagerly preparing to start the fourth group of the Ethereum Protocol Fellowship. For anyone interested in diving deeper into core Ethereum development, stay tuned for an app announcement in the coming weeks. To get notified, join Google EPF Group.
Meanwhile, you can prepare your application by ensuring a foundational understanding of the Ethereum protocol, contributing to open source projects through your GitHub account, especially contributions to existing projects in the Ethereum ecosystem, and giving some thought to what type of project you might like to work on.
Join us in shaping the future of Ethereum. Join EPF.
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