Blockchains Deliver: BTC v31.1 Released Amidst BIP-110 Controversy, Ethereum Upgrades Unfolding
The month of July saw significant developments in blockchain technology, particularly in Bitcoin and Ethereum.
BTC's Bitcoin Core v31.1 was released on July 8, introducing new features, bug fixes, and performance improvements. The release addressed issues with the chainstate database and IP address leaks when using the -privatebroadcast feature.
BIP-110, a proposal to restrict inscriptions and other non-monetary data, became a focal point of Bitcoin governance in July. However, miner signaling remained below 1% by mid-month, and by July 27, it had reached approximately 2.64%, still far from the required 55% threshold.
Ethereum's Glamsterdam upgrade aimed to deliver extreme L1 scaling and greater MEV fairness. The upgrade has entered its final round of integration and performance testing, with DevNet 7 launching in mid-July and reaching nearly 100% participation by July 30. However, the team postponed the launch of the final public DevNet 8 / Platåberget testnet due to potential performance regressions.
Ethereum's Hegota upgrade focused on censorship resistance, enhanced privacy, and lighter nodes. The scope of the upgrade is still being determined, with proposals including FOCIL for censorship-resistance and Frame Transaction for native account abstraction.