Weekly update 2021-03-05

[artob]

Weekly update 2021-03-05

The weekly update on the forum is at:
https://gov.near.org/t/2021-03-05-evm-update/848

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

Summary

• This week, we tested the ETH connector with moving funds from the Eth1 Ropsten testnet to the NEAR TestNet, streamlined the EVM Bully stress-testing tool, released a new version of near-web3-provider, and began branding under the code name Project Aurora.
• Next week, we are planning to begin integrating the ETH connector with the EVM contract, begin ingesting the Eth1 Goerli testnet through the EVM Bully stress-testing tool, and validate the revamped EVM architecture using the Balancer and/or Anemone test suites.

Agenda

• Current goal
• This week
• Discussion
  • Welcome Matt
  • Project Aurora
  • ETH connector
  • EVM Bully
• Next week

Current goal

• TestNet release by the end of Q1

This week

Alex

• Focused on the Bridge this week
• Collaborated on the ETH connector with Kirill and Evgeny U.
• Planning to work on the CLI step-by-step guide

Arto

• Began moving things over to the Project Aurora org on GitHub:
  • Our fork of SputnikVM is maintained there
  • The near-eth-rpc project is now named aurora-relayer
• Fixed regressions in near-web3-provider and released 1.2.0
• Improved the usability of aurora-relayer
• Reviewed and merged pull requests
• Supported Frank, Joshua, and onboarding Matt; worked on hiring
• Working on near-evm and Balancer/Anemone tests

Evgeny

• Tested the ETH connector from Ropsten to the NEAR TestNet
• Planned improvements to contracts with Kirill and Alex
• Integrated ETH prover, good progress
• Completing testing with Ropsten->TestNet, then figuring out integration with the EVM contract

Frank

• Evaluated near-web3-provider and near-eth-rpc changes, decided against
• Changed the EVM Bully to talk directly to the EVM contract via the NEAR JSON-RPC protocol, without going through Web3 emulation at all
• Began discussion regarding the BLOCKHASH emulation
• Working on wrapping and submitting Eth transactions

Illia

• Worked on upgradability of the EVM contract (near-evm#63)
• Imported the Balancer test contracts (a410966)

Joshua

• Got set up with a development environment for the EVM contract
• Went through the EVM contract code with Illia
• Began work on nearcore#3954, getting going with implementation of some of the actionables there
• Planning to finish the EVM upgradability sim tests by Monday (near-evm#63)

Discussion

Welcome Matt

• Need to add roles for Matt on Discord
• https://gov.near.org/t/near-evm-rollout/726
• Send links to relevant previous discussions

Project Aurora

• The combined end-user solution of EVM+Bridge

ETH connector

• Sent transaction from Eth to NEAR
• Deploy to Ropsten
• Discuss relayer additions
• Estimate no_std/no-sdk next week

EVM Bully

• The EVM contract needs two new methods for importing genesis state and submitting transactions with block context
• EVM contract changes: Arto to support
• End of next week, Goerli (on-disk Geth: ~15 GB)

Next week