It’s always fun to hear about new grants as they’re awarded, but what happens after the announcement? In this series, we’ll review a couple of projects that are underway, or already on the finish line. Read on for some recent recipient milestones and accomplishments!
ssz.dev: Technical Specifications and Resources for SSZ – SimpleSerialize
In preparing for the switch to Proof of Stake, Ethereum core developers have taken the opportunity to revamp some elements of the Ethereum protocol. This was the case with SSZ, or Simplement Saerialze, the canonical serialization format for the Ethereum PoS consensus layer.
Serialization is the process of converting data to a format to be transmitted or stored; in the case of SSZ, convert consensus data to bytes to represent it as a merkle tree. Although SSZ was built for Ethereum, it was designed to be extensible to other use cases. With that in mind, ssz.dev was created to make SSZ more accessible to developers both inside and outside of the Ethereum ecosystem.
SSZ.dev was funded in March 2021, thrown out in May, and it has continued to grow. It’s full of great resources, some original and some collected from previous community efforts, for anyone looking to learn or build with SSZ. Some highlights:
- visualizer– Play around with variables in different serialization types and see the output as serialized values and Merkle tree details.
- implementations: a list of active SSZ implementations and their basic characteristics (language, license, maintainer, etc.)
- Testing: consolidates test suites created by different implementers along with general information such as terminology, output formats, and test configuration
There is already a lot of great content, but ssz.dev it is still a work in progress. Whether you’re a serial serializer or just curious about SSZ, your feedback and contributions are welcome! Visit the Github repository to comment or contribute.
edu white for cadCAD Masterclass: Ethereum Validator Economics
CadCAD, a project BlockScienceis a open source framework to simulate complex adaptive dynamics (scoundrel), bringing the advantages of Computer Aided Design (SCOUNDREL) to the design and validation of complex systems such as blockchain networks. edu white was created to provide educational resources for using cadCAD in systems engineering environments.
The first cadCAD Edu courses, a bootcamp for beginners and “cadCAD Hacks” series for intermediate users, focused on learning how to use the cadCAD framework for modeling and simulation. With their first masterclass, the cadCAD EDU team wanted students to improve their cadCAD skills through hands-on experience with a complex system we all know and love: Ethereum. Specifically, the course introduces the radCAD library and the Ethereum economic modelthat students use to model and experiment with the Ethereum validator economy.
After receiving funding in early 2021, the Ethereum Validator Economics Masterclass thrown out in early September. The course includes approximately 3 hours of lectures accompanied by Jupyter notebooks, exercises, and exams, with a certificate available upon completion of all course requirements. the course is free for anyonealthough you will need solid knowledge of both Ethereum and cadCAD to be able to get the most out of it.
Meanwhile, the Ethereum economic model has taken on a life of its own. It was conceived for the Masterclass in collaboration with the EF Robust incentive pool, but it has become a powerful and versatile research tool in its own right. He repository contains full documentation for researchers, engineers, stakeholder, or anyone else who would like to play with or build on the model, or you can check out the front end simulator at ethmodel.io to see it in action without the need for technical knowledge.
Follow, continue @cadCAD_org Y @cadCAD_Edu for news and updates!
Are you working on something that you think could change Ethereum for the better? go to our grants page to learn more about what we look for in the projects we finance.
