Ethereum Protocol Fellowship: Third Cohort Recap

Ethereum Protocol Fellowship: Third Cohort Recap

The Ethereum Protocol Fellowship (EPF) has concluded its third successful cohort, marking a significant milestone in the program's history. Over the past four months, a group of talented and dedicated fellows have immersed themselves in the world of Ethereum core development, contributing to various areas of the protocol and gaining valuable experience.

Protocol Development: The Heart of Ethereum

At the heart of the Ethereum ecosystem lies core development, the work on the research and code that powers the Ethereum network. This includes client implementations, specifications, and other foundational aspects. Maintaining a healthy inflow of core developers is crucial for the continued success of Ethereum, as they collaborate to shape the direction of the protocol's cutting-edge roadmap, tackle its various challenges, and implement solutions.

However, jumping into core protocol development is not an easy task. There is no official organization that manages protocol development, and the rapid progress of Ethereum protocol improvements, coupled with scattered information, can make it difficult for people to keep up. The EPF was designed as a solution to make core contribution more approachable, with the goal of helping developers join the various teams that work on the protocol.

The Ethereum Protocol Fellowship (EPF)

The EPF is a 4-month permissionless fellowship program that helps to streamline the process of becoming a core developer. The program is structured to give fellows the autonomy and independence required to work as a core developer, allowing them to choose their area of interest, propose a project, and work on it for the remainder of the program. They receive valuable feedback from current core developers and become part of a community of like-minded individuals eager to learn by doing.

Third Cohort: A Success Story

Applications for the third cohort opened on September 1st, 2022, and after reviewing over 600 applications and conducting many interviews, 23 participants were selected to join the official cohort. However, being a permissionless program, the cohort ended with a total of 36 contributors.

During the 4-month period, fellows had the opportunity to work with 27 core developer mentors from various client and research teams. Their work was regularly reported in over 300 weekly updates. Fellows also participated in weekly standup and office hours calls to share updates, discuss projects, and participate in AMA interview sessions with mentors and core devs.

EPF Third Cohort Projects

The third cohort proposed and contributed to 20 projects, some of which are still receiving contributions. These projects not only represent a valuable learning experience but also meaningful contributions to the Ethereum ecosystem. Some of the notable projects include:

• Implement bundler for EIP-4337 AA as a standalone entity that can work alongside any execution client
• Contribute to the implementation of EIP-4844 in Lighthouse
• Building the subprotocols of the Ultralight client
• Collection of RESTful APIs to enhance interoperability across beacon node implementations
• Monitoring system to track network data and on-chain events
• Peer-to-peer networking service for Helios
• Rollup analytics software suite
• Rust implementation of a Secure Kademlia DHT overlay atop the discv5 protocol
• Rewrite the Prysm validator code to be compatible with the standard Beacon API
• Mechanism to reduce trust in the PBS relay
• Revocation mechanism to allow validators to improve their operational security
• R&D for the migration from Merkle Patricia Tries to Verkle Tries
• Perform attestation analysis of major staking pools
• Dashboard to track network health and block utilization
• Increase the scope of eth, discv4 and discv5 tests and add new tests for the Ethereum execution clients
• Implement the DoS defense scheme proposed in the DETER paper

EPF Project Details

All resources of the program can be found in its repository. You can follow all activity in the cohort there, checkout projects resources, development updates and fellows' notes. Projects are not only FOSS contributions but all of the work done within the cohort is fully open, being an actual part of Ethereum's open research and resources.

Next Cohort Soon

Following the success of the third cohort, we are eagerly preparing to start the fourth cohort of the Ethereum Protocol Fellowship. For anyone interested in diving into Ethereum core development, stay tuned for the application announcement in the coming weeks. To get notified, join the EPF google group.

Meanwhile, you can prepare your application by ensuring a foundational understanding of the Ethereum protocol, contributing to open-source projects through your GitHub account, especially contributions to existing projects in the Ethereum ecosystem, and giving some thought to the type of project you may like to work on.

Join us in shaping the future of Ethereum. Join the EPF.

Source: https://blog.ethereum.org/en/2023/05/10/ethereum-protocol-fellowship-third-recap