Compiled | GaryMa Wu Blockchain
Wu Blockchain team summarizes key blockchain technology developments in May:
Bitcoin
· Recently, the Bitcoin community proposed BIP-177, attracting attention. BIP-177 suggests redefining the base unit as 1 Bitcoin, abandoning "satoshi" or "sat", with the currency code BTC remaining unchanged, meaning 1 BTC = 100,000,000 base units = 100,000,000 Bitcoin. The proposal believes long-term benefits will help reduce confusion and provide a more accurate understanding of Bitcoin's basic design. Jack Dorsey expressed support for "BIP-177" in a tweet.
Ethereum
· Ethereum mainnet Pectra upgrade was completed successfully.
· The next mainnet upgrade Fusaka has been launched on Devnet-0.
· Vitalik's blog post: How to make Ethereum as simple as Bitcoin in 5 years. The article focuses on the importance of protocol simplicity, proposing to significantly reduce complexity by simplifying the consensus layer (3-slot finality, STARK aggregation) and execution layer (replacing EVM with RISC-V or similar virtual machine), reducing development costs, error risks, and attack surfaces. Suggests a smooth transition through backward-compatible strategies (such as on-chain EVM interpreter) and unifying erasure codes, serialization formats (SSZ), and tree structures for further simplification. The goal is to make Ethereum's consensus critical code close to Bitcoin's simplicity, enhancing resilience and participation, requiring a cultural emphasis on simplicity and setting maximum code line number targets.
· Vitalik wrote about the evolution strategy of Ethereum Rollup's security model. The three stages of Ethereum Rollup security (Stage 0, 1, 2) are defined by whether the security committee can cover a trustless proof system: Stage 0 is completely controlled by the security committee, Stage 1 requires 75% agreement (at least 6/8) with at least 3 external members, Stage 2 only intervenes when a verifiable error occurs in the proof system. Vitalik analyzes through a mathematical model that, considering each security committee member has a 10% "failure" probability, L2 should directly deploy from Stage 1, not remain at Stage 0. He also points out that it's not advisable to jump to Stage 2 too early, suggesting prioritizing the underlying proof system's security. He recommends that data providers (like L2beat) should display proof system audit and maturity metrics to assist evaluation.
Ethereum L2s
· Optimism announced the successful activation of the Isthmus hard fork, introducing key features from the Ethereum Pectra upgrade to the OP Stack and Superchain. This upgrade occurred just two days after Pectra went live on the Ethereum mainnet, with Superchain being the first L2 ecosystem to support the Pectra upgrade. The upgrade covers Base, Ink, OP Mainnet, Soneium, Unichain, and several other OP Stack chains.
· ZKsync announced full EVM equivalence, implemented as part of protocol version 27, now live on Era Network, to be expanded to all ZK chains in the Elastic Network. Developers no longer need to use zkSolc, Foundry ZKsync, or hardhat-foundry, and can directly use standard solc, foundry, and hardhat tools for deployment. The upgrade was approved through governance proposal ZIP-9 and relevant development documentation has been released.
· Polygon Labs announced that its chain development toolkit CDK (now renamed Agglayer CDK) now officially supports multiple technology stacks, with the first integration being OP Stack configuration. The new version allows developers to launch high-performance, low-cost chains using OP Stack and natively connect to Agglayer without additional fees. In the future, Arbitrum Orbit, ABC Stack, and others may join the Agglayer ecosystem.
Solana
· Anza team announced "Scheduler Bindings" for Solana's Agave validator client, allowing validators to customize block packaging logic through a modular architecture without modifying core code. Currently, over 90% of Solana validators use custom schedulers (like Jito, Paladin) to enhance MEV revenue, but face issues of insufficient transparency, security risks, and operational complexity. The new feature significantly improves transparency, security, and operational efficiency by separating packaging logic and providing standard rules, optimizing MEV revenue and supporting non-default schedulers.
· The Anza team, which spun off from Solana Labs, released the Alpenglow proposal to replace Solana's TowerBFT consensus mechanism and Turbine data propagation system with Votor and Rotor. Votor optimizes the consensus process through parallel voting paths, reducing block processing time to 100-150 milliseconds; Rotor improves block propagation protocol based on Turbine, optimizing bandwidth through single-layer relay nodes and using erasure coding to ensure data integrity.
· Solana officially launched a new verification service for Solana Attestation Service (SAS), usable for verifying anything, aimed at providing a trust layer for internet capital markets. SAS allows associating off-chain data with any Solana wallet, enabling applications to verify KYC/identity proof, investor certification, and on-chain reputation while maintaining privacy through signature verification.
· Solana announced multiple new developments at the Accelerate NYC event. These include launching a new consensus protocol Alpenglow, lightweight node Mithril, and ZK compression upgrade. Alpenglow introduces new mechanisms to enhance network efficiency, Mithril supports users running nodes on ordinary devices, and ZK Compression V2 optimizes storage efficiency for accounts and tokens.
SUI
· SUI ecosystem DEX Cetus was hacked, with the attacker exploiting a checked_shlw function's overflow detection flaw. By using a flash loan to borrow haSUI, manipulating prices, and exchanging massive liquidity at a cost of just 1 token, the attacker gained approximately $230 million, including various assets like SUI, vSUI, and USDC. The attacker transferred some funds (USDC, SOL, etc.) cross-chain to EVM addresses via Sui Bridge and deposited $10 million in Suilend assets. Currently, $162 million in stolen funds have been frozen by the SUI Foundation. Afterward, Mysten Labs officials urgently launched a whitelist request (transaction_allow_list_skip_all_checks) but subsequently closed the PR, indicating they are exploring new rescue strategies.
· The Sui community proposal "whether to return Cetus protocol stolen assets through special transactions" has passed. The next Sui protocol upgrade will include two one-time special transaction certification mechanisms. These transactions will hard-code the attacker's address, stolen asset objects, and target address (a multi-sig wallet managed jointly by Cetus, Sui Foundation, and OtterSec), transferring approximately $162 million in frozen funds from the attacker's address to the multi-sig wallet.
BNB Chain
· BNB Chain has successfully activated the Maxwell hard fork on the testnet. Key upgrades include a 0.75-second block generation time, generation of consecutive 16 blocks, and enhanced network scalability.
Near
· NEAR announced officially providing 600-millisecond block generation time and 1.2-second final confirmation time. NEAR's significantly shortened block generation time is due to its Doomslug consensus, which provides substantial finality guarantee by building a block at the top layer, and only slashable malicious attacks can reverse the previous block. The current finality (time required for transactions to become irreversible) is 1.2 seconds, 10 times faster than Solana and over 600 times faster than Ethereum and L2s.
Hyperliquid
· Hyperliquid announced the launch of a feature supporting developer-driven perpetual contract deployment (HIP-3), currently live on the testnet. This mechanism achieves completely decentralized market launch, requiring a 1 million HYPE stake and Dutch auction gas payment. Deployers can set fee sharing and market parameters, with validators able to slash the stake for malicious operations.
Others
· Filecoin officially announced that the new consensus mechanism Fast Finality (F3) was formally activated on the mainnet on April 29, 2025 (epoch 4920480). F3 optimizes parameters and architecture to accelerate transaction final confirmation speed, enhancing network performance and user experience. Filecoin will launch related APIs in the future to promote F3 integration with wallets, bridges, and exchanges.
· World Chain launches portable biometric device Orb Mini. Orb Mini aims to simplify the iris scanning process, making identity verification more convenient. It will be launched in the United States on May 1, 2025, and may potentially be used as a point-of-sale terminal in the future, allowing users to pay via iris scanning. World Chain is the blockchain platform of Worldcoin, focusing on digital identity verification. Orb Mini is a hardware device in its ecosystem, primarily used to confirm human identity through iris scanning.
· ZKM collaborates with GOAT Network to release zkMIPS 1.0, the first scalable deployable zero-knowledge virtual machine (zkVM) based on the MIPS architecture, with performance improved by 19 times compared to zkMIPS 0.3.0. This version successfully verified Ethereum mainnet blocks on the ETHProofs platform supported by the Ethereum Foundation and ranked first in performance comparisons. zkMIPS 1.0 has been deployed as the core execution foundation for GOAT Network, helping to build a secure, decentralized, and sustainable BTC yield network, becoming an important application scenario for zkVM in the Bitcoin ecosystem and solving the long-standing challenge of finding practical use cases for zkVM.
· Coinbase Developer Platform releases open-source protocol x402. Based on the HTTP 402 payment status code, the protocol aims to build a native payment layer for the network. The x402 protocol supports payment processes without registration or email verification, allowing developers to integrate with just one line of code. The protocol can adapt to various blockchain networks and provide payment capabilities for AI agents.
· TonBit under BitsLab discovered a non-atomic state transition vulnerability in the RUNVM instruction within the deep code of the TON Virtual Machine (TVM). Attackers can contaminate the parent virtual machine's libraries at the moment a sub-virtual machine exhausts gas and induce subsequent call failures, ultimately causing abnormal behavior in contracts dependent on library integrity. TonBit has immediately submitted technical details and mitigation solutions to the TON Foundation and assisted in the repair.
· Sei Labs releases the Sei Giga whitepaper, aiming to become an EVM L1 blockchain supporting multiple proposers. The solution adopts a parallel block proposal architecture, with key technical features including: 5 Ggas throughput, 200,000 TPS processing capacity, 400-millisecond transaction finality time, and a newly developed EVM execution client. In terms of technical architecture, Sei Giga achieves performance breakthroughs through an asynchronous state submission mechanism and Autobahn consensus protocol, claiming to improve throughput by 50 times compared to traditional solutions while maintaining Ethereum smart contract compatibility.
· Google announces the introduction of zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) technology in Google Wallet for age verification. Users can prove they meet age requirements without sharing their birth date or identity documents. The system is based on blockchain technology, generating proofs through public keys to ensure data privacy while validating validity. The first platform to integrate this technology is the dating app Bumble, where users can verify their age through Google Wallet's digital ID. This development not only enhances the privacy of digital identity verification but also promotes the adoption of ZK technology in mainstream applications (Google Wallet ZKP).
