It’s always fun to hear about new grants as they are awarded, but what happens after the announcement? In this series, we’ll look at some projects that are well underway – or already at the finish line. Read on to learn about some recent recipient milestones and achievements!
SSZ.dev: Technical specifications and resources for SSZ – SimpleSerialize
In preparing for the move to Proof of Stake, Ethereum’s core developers took the opportunity to revamp certain elements of the Ethereum protocol. This was the case of SSZ, or Sto implement SerialZe, the canonical serialization format for Ethereum’s PoS consensus layer.
Serialization is the process of converting data into a format to be transmitted or stored – in the case of SSZ, converting consensus data into bytes to be represented as Merkle tree. Although SSZ was created for Ethereum, it was designed to be extensible to other use cases. With this in mind, SSZ.dev was created to make SSZ more accessible to developers inside and outside of the Ethereum ecosystem.
SSZ.dev was funded in March 2021, spear in May, and continued to grow. It’s full of excellent resources, some original and some from previous community efforts, for anyone looking to learn or build with SSZ. Some highlights:
- Visualizer: Play with variables of different serialization types and see the result in the form of serialized values and Merkle tree details.
- Implementations: a list of active SSZ implementations and their basic functionality (language, license, maintainer, etc.)
- Essay: consolidates test suites built by different implementers along with general information such as terminology, output formats and test configuration
There is already a lot of interesting content, but SSZ.dev is still a work in progress. Whether you are a serial serializer or simply curious about SSZ, your comments and contributions are welcome! Visit the Github repository to comment or contribute.
CadCAD Edu For cadCAD masterclass: economics of the Ethereum validator
CadCAD, a project of BlockScienceis a open source simulation framework complex adaptive dynamics (cad), bringing the advantages of Computer Aided Design (GUJAT) to the design and validation of complex systems such as blockchain networks. CadCAD Edu was created to provide educational resources on the use of cadCAD in systems engineering settings.
The first cadCAD Edu courses, a beginner-level bootcamp and “cadCAD Hacks” series for intermediate users, focused on learning how to use the cadCAD framework for modeling and simulation. With its first masterclass, the cadCAD EDU team wanted to enable students to improve their cadCAD skills through hands-on experience with a complex system we all know and love: Ethereum. More specifically, the course introduces the radCAD the library and Ethereum economic modelwhich students use to model and experiment with the economics of the Ethereum validator.
After receiving funding in early 2021, the Ethereum Validator Economics Masterclass spear early September. The course consists of 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 allalthough you will need solid knowledge of Ethereum and cadCAD to get the most out of it.
The Ethereum business model, meanwhile, has taken on a life of its own. It was designed for the Masterclass in collaboration with the EF Robust incentive groupbut has become a powerful and versatile research tool in its own right. THE deposit contains extensive documentation for researchers, engineers, stakeholders, or anyone else wanting to play with or build on the model – or you can view the front-end simulator at ethmodel.io to see it in action with no technical skills required.
Follow @cadCAD_org And @cadCAD_Edu for news and updates!
Are you working on anything that you think could improve Ethereum? Visit our grants page to learn more about what we look for in the projects we fund.
