Hey Everyone, I had the pleasure of visiting with the Canadian techies in Toronto after delivering my presentation on “Ethereum: The World Computer” at the Blockchain Training Conference last month. I wanted to provide you with an overview of some of the more thrilling advancements in the Ethereum development environment. Let’s take a look!
Projects
Fog
The Ethereum wallet has seen substantial improvements over the last few months. It now offers the capability of contract interaction through a new API. The “custom contracts” tab is a big improvement over using the command-line to send transactions. The team has been actively adding new members and are currently implementing the new versions of Mist and Geth that will provide several enhancements. If you’re still using an older version, please upgrade to Fog 0.8.0 for the freshest features.
Screenshot Fog 0.8.0
Mix
The CPP crew has shifted their focus after the difficult work of restructuring the C++ codebase. Remix, the IDE that targets the web, reached its first beta and was released online with a demo. Check out the repository at https://github.com/ethereum/remix for more information. There is still a dearth of EVM IDEs, so this might be a huge leap forward in terms of accessibility. They’ve also recently released an online robustness calculator, as well as security tools like EVMDIS. You can read Christian’s C++ DEV Update for the full scoop.
ENS
Example ENS hierarchy diagram with multiple records
This is an unofficial project, with many ties to other projects. Nick Johnson has begun work on the Ethereum Name Service. It features smart contract-based solvers that use standard APIs. The specification supports delegation by name component (separated by “.”) and multiple record types. It is possible to build bridges to link with existing systems like DNS. A draft specification is available here and a reference implementation in Solidity is available. The discussion is ongoing over at gitter. This could have far-reaching effects on the usability of services offered on the Internet, including wallet aliases and Swarm friendly node names.
Protocols
Thin Client
We should keep an eye out for thin client functionality. Zsolt has finished the code and it should soon be merged into the main repository. The new code drastically reduces the time necessary to sync the chain, from genesis block to less than 30 minutes, and from week-by-week to less than one minute. Building on the work Peter did for the quick sync functionality, which is now the default with Mist (“Quick”). It is now being improved to fetch records/receipts, and many iterations are expected over time. This isn’t the last you’ll hear of LES!
