Welcome to the Protocol, Coindesk’s weekly wrapping of the most important stories in cryptocurrency tech development. I am Margaux Nijkerk, Ethereum Protocol reporter at Coindesk.
In this number:
- Ethereum’s second buggy ‘pectra’ test could lead to a delayed upgrade
- Ethereum Foundation selects new Co-Executive Directors, for Leadership
- Layer-2 Bob’s ‘Bitcoin Defi’ continues progress with Fireblocks integration
- Popular Crypto Wallet Metamask Revealing New Roadmap
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Network news
Ethereum’s second buggy test network for pectra delays?: Ethereum developers celebrated on Wednesday an apparently successful test of Pectra, Blockchain’s most significant upgrade since 2024, on Sepolia Test Network. However, hours after the test Sepolia began to encounter errors. It was the second buggy test for the highly expected pectra upgrade designed to improve Ethereum’s efficiency, user experience and validator system. The questions have led to calls from some developers that the upgrade is delayed. Wednesday’s Sepolia test (March 5) was expected to be the last step before Pectra’s launch at Ethereum’s mainnet. Originally the test seemed to succeed, but later developers noticed empty blocks added to the chain. The Ethereum Foundation attributed the question to “a problem with Sepolia’s allowed payment contract”, which “prevented many execution layers from including transactions in blocks.” In other words, the problem stemmed from a wrong configuration specific to the Sepolia test, rather than an error with Pectra itself. Despite this, the test has raised concern about whether Pectra has undergone adequate testing. The previous test on Ethereum’s Holeky test network also ran into configuration problems, the time caused by incorrectly configured validators. – Sam Kessler Read more.
Ethereum Foundation selects new Co-Executive Directors: Ethereum Foundation (EF), the non-profit organization that supports the development and research of Ethereum Blockchain, shared in a blog post which they have chosen Hsiao-Wei Wang and Tomasz Stańczak as their new co-earecutive instructors. The news follows Aya Miyaguchi’s departure to become the EC’s new president. Leadership shakes follows intense debate among society about the role of the EC in the ecosystem, as some have blamed the organization and its leadership for Blockchains Tokenether (ETH) award hanging behind other cryptocurrencies, while blockchain attracted less new developers for the first time than its competitor Solana. Ex-EEF scientist Danny Ryan also shared that he would join Etherealize, the new project aimed at bringing ETH to Wall Street. – Margaux Nijkerk Read more.
Bitcoin Layer-2 Bob and Fireblocks integrate: Ehybrid Layer-2 Network Bob’s mission to make Bitcoin the center of the decentralized funding (Defi) universe continues through its integration with the crypto-detention company Fireblocks. Integration means that the over 2,000 devices using Fireblocks will have access to BOB’s Defi Ecosystem, which has a total value locked (tvl) of about $ 250 million. These users can now earn benefits from their BTC Holdings via BOB’s network, according to a message shared with Coindesk. – Jamie Crawley Read more.
Popular Crypto Wallet Metamask Revealing New Roadmap: Metamask, the popular self -defense crypto -design book to Ethereum (ETH) network, shared a flurry of messages last week for the purpose of improving its wallet user experience. Part of Metamask’s renewed roadmap includes the addition of smart contract functions to its current wallet. Currently, Metamask is an external owned account (EOA), a type of wallet that is managed by a public and a private key. One of the most important subpoena with EOAs is that it is subject to human error, which means that if you forget your private key, you lose your crypto holdings in this account forever. The second type of wallet found at Ethereum is contract accounts (CAS), which is controlled by code and has recovery mechanisms in place and security checks to verify transactions. In a blog post that was shared under Ethenver, the largest North American Ethereum conference, the Metamask Team said “Smart-Contract-based accounts allow us to solve a number of problems: allowing new powerful uses of the assets you have while improving security. When the user defines their terms from their own programmable account, we extend a lot how the user expresses their agency in ways enforced by their own code. “One of the new features aimed at making the user experience at Metamask easier, includes the ERC-5792, which is based on its current feature, smart transactions. Under the ERC-5792 or known as batched transactions, users can combine certain steps when it comes to unsubscribing transactions that “approve + swap” in a single click, which means they would save time and gas fees by batching these steps together. – Margaux Nijkerk Read more.
In other news
Trading Titan Jump re -groups its US crypto effort, Insiders say
- While Jump has maintained its trade in digital assets and market -making in other parts of the globe, Crypto Trading Volume is now globally, according to a person who is familiar with the situation. Ian Allison and Will Canny Report.
David Sacks quietly outdated from Crypto Company in the Center of Conflict of Interest Controversy
- SACKS ‘Venture company, Craft Ventures, left its biting position prior to the new administration, according to a source close to the situation. Sam Kessler reports.
Legislative and politics
- Leaders from a wide range of crypto companies, including Coinbase, Chainlink and Exodus, represent the industry Friday with US President Donald Trump’s first crypto summit in the White House. Jesse Hamilton, Cheyenne Ligon, Nik de and Christine Lee Report.
