May Blockchain Technology Update: Pectra Upgrade Completed, BTC Unit Redefinition Proposed, Solana's Alpenglow Consensus Protocol

Written by: GaryMa, Wu Blockchain

The WuBlockchain summarizes key developments in the blockchain technology space for May:

Bitcoin

● The Bitcoin community recently proposed BIP-177, which has garnered significant attention. BIP-177 suggests redefining the base unit as 1 Bitcoin, phasing out the use of “satoshi” or “sat,” while keeping the currency code BTC unchanged (1 BTC = 100,000,000 base units = 100,000,000 Bitcoin). The proposal argues that this change would reduce confusion and foster a more accurate understanding of Bitcoin’s fundamental design in the long term. Jack Dorsey expressed support for BIP-177 in a tweet, stating “BIP-177.”

Ethereum

● The Ethereum mainnet successfully completed the Pectra upgrade.

● The next mainnet upgrade, Fusaka, has launched on Devnet-0.

● Vitalik Buterin published a blog post titled “How to Make Ethereum as Simple as Bitcoin in Five Years.” The article emphasizes the importance of protocol simplicity, proposing significant complexity reduction through measures like simplifying the consensus layer (3-slot finality, STARK aggregation) and execution layer (replacing EVM with RISC-V or a similar virtual machine). These changes aim to lower development costs, error risks, and attack surfaces. Suggestions include backward-compatible strategies (e.g., on-chain EVM interpreters), unified erasure codes, serialized formats (SSZ), and tree structures for further simplification. The goal is to make Ethereum’s consensus-critical code as simple as Bitcoin’s, enhancing resilience and participation by prioritizing simplicity culturally and setting a maximum code line target.

● Vitalik also discussed Ethereum Rollup’s evolving security model. The three stages of Rollup security (Stage 0, 1, 2) are defined based on whether a security council can override trustless proof systems: Stage 0 grants full control to the security council; Stage 1 requires 75% agreement (at least 6/8 members, with 3 external members); Stage 2 intervenes only when verifiable errors occur in the proof system. Through mathematical modeling, assuming a 10% “failure” probability for council members, Vitalik suggests L2s should deploy from Stage 1 rather than lingering in Stage 0. However, he cautions against prematurely jumping to Stage 2, recommending stronger proof system security first. He also advises data providers (e.g., L2beat) to display proof system audits and maturity metrics to aid evaluation.

Ethereum L2s

● Optimism announced the successful activation of the Isthmus hard fork, integrating key Pectra upgrade features into the OP Stack and Superchain. This upgrade, completed just two days after Pectra’s mainnet launch, makes Superchain the first L2 ecosystem to support Pectra. The upgrade covers Base, Ink, OP Mainnet, Soneium, Unichain, and other OP Stack chains.

● ZKsync achieved full EVM equivalence as part of its Protocol Version 27 upgrade, now live on the Era network and set to expand to all ZK chains in the Elastic Network. Developers can now use standard tools like solc, Foundry, and Hardhat for deployment, eliminating the need for zkSolc, Foundry ZKsync, or Hardhat-Foundry. The upgrade was approved via governance proposal ZIP-9, with relevant documentation released.

● Polygon Labs announced that its Chain Development Kit (CDK), now rebranded as Agglayer CDK, supports multiple technology stacks, starting with OP Stack integration. The new version allows developers to launch high-performance, low-cost chains using OP Stack, seamlessly connecting to Agglayer without additional costs. In the future, Arbitrum Orbit, ABC Stack, and others may also integrate with the Agglayer ecosystem.

Solana

● The Anza team introduced “Scheduler Bindings” for Solana’s Agave validator client, enabling validators to customize block-packing logic via a modular architecture without altering core code. Over 90% of Solana validators use custom schedulers (e.g., Jito, Paladin) to boost MEV profits but face issues like lack of transparency, security risks, and operational complexity. The new feature enhances transparency, security, and efficiency by separating packing logic and providing standard rules (e.g., “fail and discard” or “all-or-nothing”), optimizing MEV profits and supporting non-default schedulers.

● Anza, now independent from Solana Labs, proposed Alpenglow, replacing Solana’s TowerBFT consensus mechanism and Turbine data propagation system with Votor and Rotor. Votor optimizes consensus by parallelizing voting paths, reducing block processing time to 100–150 milliseconds. Rotor improves Turbine’s block propagation protocol with single-layer relay nodes and erasure coding for data integrity.

● Solana launched the Solana Attestation Service (SAS), a new verification service for validating off-chain data linked to Solana wallets. SAS enables applications to verify KYC/identity, investor accreditation, and on-chain reputation while preserving privacy through signed attestations.

● At the Accelerate NYC event, Solana unveiled several advancements, including the Alpenglow consensus protocol, lightweight Mithril nodes, and ZK Compression V2. Alpenglow enhances network efficiency, Mithril enables node operation on standard devices, and ZK Compression V2 optimizes account and token storage efficiency.

SUI

● SUI ecosystem DEX Cetus suffered a hack exploiting an overflow detection flaw in the checked_shlw function. The attacker used a flash loan to borrow haSUI, manipulated prices, and swapped for massive liquidity at a cost of just one token, profiting approximately $230 million in assets like SUI, vSUI, and USDC. The attacker bridged some funds (USDC, SOL, etc.) to EVM addresses via Sui Bridge and deposited $10 million into Suilend. The SUI Foundation froze $162 million of the stolen funds. Mysten Labs briefly introduced a transaction whitelist PR but later closed it to explore alternative recovery solutions.

● A SUI community proposal to return stolen Cetus assets via special transactions passed. The next SUI protocol upgrade will include one-time special transaction authentication mechanisms, hardcoding the attacker’s address, stolen asset objects, and a target multisig wallet managed by Cetus, SUI Foundation, and OtterSec, transferring the $162 million in frozen funds to the multisig wallet.

BNB Chain

● BNB Chain successfully activated the Maxwell hard fork on its testnet, featuring a 0.75-second block generation time, continuous 16-block production, and enhanced network scalability.

NEAR

● NEAR announced a 600-millisecond block production time and 1.2-second finality. Enabled by the Doomslug consensus, NEAR achieves substantial finality with a single block at the top layer, with only slashable malicious attacks able to reverse prior blocks. Finality (time for transactions to become irreversible) is now 1.2 seconds — 10 times faster than Solana and over 600 times faster than Ethereum and its L2s.

Hyperliquid

● Hyperliquid introduced a feature (HIP-3) allowing developers to deploy perpetual contracts, now live on the testnet. This fully decentralized mechanism requires staking 1 million HYPE and paying gas via Dutch auction. Deployers can set fee splits and market parameters, with malicious actions subject to validator voting and stake forfeiture.

Others

● Filecoin’s new Fast Finality (F3) consensus mechanism was activated on the mainnet on April 29, 2025 (epoch 4920480). F3 optimizes parameters and architecture to accelerate transaction finality, enhancing network performance and user experience. Future APIs will support wallet, bridge, and exchange integration with F3.

● World Chain launched the Orb Mini, a portable biometric device to simplify iris scanning for identity verification. Launched in the U.S. on May 1, 2025, it may serve as a point-of-sale terminal for iris-based payments. World Chain, part of Worldcoin, focuses on digital identity verification.

● ZKM and GOAT Network released zkMIPS 1.0, a scalable zero-knowledge virtual machine (zkVM) based on the MIPS architecture, offering 19x performance improvement over zkMIPS 0.3.0. It successfully verified Ethereum mainnet blocks on the ETHProofs platform and ranked first in performance benchmarks. zkMIPS 1.0 powers GOAT Network’s secure, decentralized BTC yield network, addressing zkVM’s challenge of finding practical use cases.

● Coinbase’s developer platform released the open-source x402 protocol, based on HTTP 402 payment status code, enabling a native payment layer for the web. Requiring just one line of code, x402 supports registration-free, email-free payments across blockchain networks and enables AI agent payments.

● BitsLab’s TonBit discovered a non-atomic state transition vulnerability in TON’s RUNVM instruction, allowing attackers to pollute parent VM libraries via sub-VM gas exhaustion, causing contract failures. TonBit submitted details and mitigation to the TON Foundation, assisting in the fix.

● Sei Labs released the Sei Giga whitepaper, aiming to create an EVM L1 blockchain with multiple proposers. Featuring 5 Ggas throughput, 200,000 TPS, 400-millisecond finality, and a new EVM execution client, Sei Giga uses asynchronous state submission and the Autobahn consensus for a 50x throughput boost while maintaining Ethereum smart contract compatibility.

● Google introduced zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) technology in Google Wallet for age verification, allowing users to prove age compliance without sharing birthdates or IDs. Using blockchain-based public key proofs, it ensures privacy and validity. The dating app Bumble is the first to integrate this, enabling age verification via Google Wallet’s digital ID, advancing ZK technology adoption in mainstream applications.

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