WuBlockchain has published its August technology report, summarizing key blockchain engineering developments across Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Arbitrum, Polygon, BNB Chain, Hyperliquid, and security tooling.
Bitcoin: BIP-110 fails to gain support and the minority chain stalls
The long-contested Bitcoin proposal BIP-110, or Reduced Data Temporary Softfork, entered live activation in August. The proposal aimed to temporarily restrict certain non-financial data writes in response to disputes around Ordinals, inscriptions, and blockspace usage.
Once the process entered mandatory signaling, miner support reached only about 2.5%. From Bitcoin block height 961,632, nodes enforcing BIP-110 rules started rejecting non-signaling Bitcoin blocks, effectively creating an independent minority chain. That chain produced only around two blocks before it largely stopped, while the main Bitcoin network kept running normally.
The episode, according to the report, showed again that being included as a BIP or having executable code does not by itself amount to social consensus on Bitcoin. Protocol changes still require sufficiently broad coordination among miners, nodes, and economic participants.
Bitcoin Core v32 freezes features, release expected in October
Bitcoin Core v32 completed feature freeze on Aug. 20. Developers are now focused on bug fixes and smaller optimizations, and the formal release is expected in October this year.
Main changes in v32 include parallel block validation across multiple CPU cores for up to roughly 3x faster verification, a global transaction queue with rate limiting to improve node stability during sudden traffic spikes, and a mempool-state-based fee estimation mechanism intended to reduce fee overestimation.
The update does not introduce protocol rule changes at the Bitcoin network level.
Core Lightning urges node operators to upgrade
Core Lightning released version 26.06.7 and recommended that all node operators upgrade. The release fixes multiple vulnerabilities reported over the past three weeks. During the same period, the Bitcoin open-source ecosystem also saw a sharp increase in AI-generated vulnerability reports. Details of the vulnerabilities remain under a two-week disclosure embargo and will be published once that period ends.
Quantum-Safe Bitcoin reaches first mainnet confirmation
Quantum-Safe Bitcoin, or QSB, a scheme proposed by StarkWare researcher Avihu Levy, has completed its first confirmed transaction on Bitcoin mainnet.
The design does not require a soft fork or changes to existing consensus rules. Instead, it adds a hash-based locking mechanism that shifts transaction security away from elliptic-curve cryptography and toward hash collision resistance and preimage resistance, with the aim of reducing future risks from Shor-algorithm attacks on public-key systems.
QSB remains experimental. The report said offline computation for a single transaction costs roughly hundreds of dollars, and the transaction format is non-standard, requiring direct submission to miners through channels such as MARA Slipstream.
Ethereum: Glamsterdam enters public testing while Hegotá moves into narrowing mode
Glamsterdam moves from internal DevNet to public testnet stage
Ethereum’s Glamsterdam upgrade formally moved from an internal DevNet phase into public testing in August. On Aug. 13, the last major Glamsterdam test network, DevNet 8 or Platåberget, was launched, and the Gloas fork was activated on Aug. 20.
The network is open to public validator participation and is being used to fully test core changes including ePBS, BAL, and gas repricing. The Ethereum Foundation has positioned it as a stable public proving ground before the upgrade advances to longer-lived testnets such as Sepolia and Hoodi.
Through the middle and latter part of August, testing emphasis shifted from whether the protocol could run at all to edge cases and client compatibility. Topics under review included BAL decoding and RPC behavior, the Engine API, Builder and Remote Signer APIs, Inclusion List size, EIP-8037 state gas rules, eth/72 transaction sizing, and gossip checks designed to prevent missed blocks under ePBS.
By Aug. 31, teams had already started discussing a possible DevNet 9, a sign that Platåberget itself had entered a relatively stable and sustained testing phase.
Testnet schedule narrows, but no mainnet date yet
The timeline has also started to converge. Developers proposed Sept. 28 for Glamsterdam activation on Sepolia and Oct. 26 for Hoodi, and those dates are now being advanced as testnet targets.
As of the end of August, though, there was still no formal mainnet activation date. The report described the status more precisely as follows: core specifications are largely frozen, and the upgrade has entered public testing and the final validation stage before mainnet deployment.
Hegotá shifts from open intake to candidate screening
For Hegotá, the central change in August was a move away from open proposal collection and into candidate screening and CFI narrowing. On Aug. 6, the submission window for non-Headliner EIPs formally closed, while FOCIL, EIP-7805, remained the confirmed anti-censorship Headliner.
After that, developers began clearing out proposals without champions and asked client teams to submit priority lists for non-Headliner EIPs by Sept. 10.
Frame Transactions enter live interoperability and testing
The biggest substantive step during the month came from Frame Transactions, EIP-8141. Nethermind added support, the first standalone frames-devnet-0 launched on Aug. 13, and a dedicated breakout session was reconvened on Aug. 25.
That moved native account abstraction from a conceptual candidate into real client interoperability and testing, though whether it becomes part of Hegotá’s final core feature set still depends on later CFI decisions.
EF priorities: privacy, account UX, and more L1 scaling room
On Aug. 17, the Ethereum Foundation’s Protocol Architecture team gave a clearer signal on priorities. Alongside FOCIL, it recommended Frame Transactions, Keyed Nonces, and Recent Roots to strengthen privacy and account UX. It also kept BAL Sidecar, data and state repricing, and other ideas in consideration to open more room toward a 500–600M gas limit, while preserving tracks related to zkEVM readiness and Quick Slots.
By the end of the month, Hegotá was no longer in a fully open “wide selection” stage. Its candidate pool had largely taken shape, and developers had begun ranking and eliminating options. The final feature set, CFI list, and mainnet timeline are still undecided.
Justin Drake says EF is dropping Poseidon as the L1 hash path
Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake said EF will no longer pursue Poseidon as the hash scheme for Ethereum L1 and will instead use more traditional hash functions such as SHA or BLAKE.
He linked that change to recent advances in binary-field SNARK designs, which allow traditional functions such as SHA2 and BLAKE2s to achieve performance in SNARKs comparable to Poseidon. In his view, that reduces dependence on specialized SNARK-friendly hash functions and supports a more hash-centric post-quantum cryptography path for Ethereum.
Drake said EF’s post-quantum team is already building along that line. The current roadmap targets a production-grade leanVM in 2027, followed by deployments across the consensus, data, and execution layers in 2028.
Vitalik Buterin updates the roadmap and raises post-quantum priority
Vitalik Buterin said Ethereum’s current roadmap has materially reprioritized items relative to the 2023 version. Post-quantum security has moved higher, while VDF work and some EVM improvements have been deemphasized. Some older designs are being replaced by new state types and PBT-related approaches.
New focus areas include strong privacy, scaling under post-quantum assumptions, AI-assisted formal verification, blob and gas futures, native rollups, and exploration of leanISA and RISC-V as simpler and more efficient execution architectures.
Vitalik said Ethereum’s core directions going forward will center on STARKs, privacy, post-quantum security, safety, censorship resistance, and high-performance scaling.
Foundation warns some fixed-gas tools may break
The Ethereum Foundation warned that Glamsterdam will change the gas model and could directly break wallets, indexers, and gas estimation tools that depend on fixed gas ceilings.
EIP-8037 introduces separate state gas charges for operations that create new state. A transfer to an existing account would still cost 21,000 gas, while a transfer to a new account would incur an extra charge. The Foundation urged developers to complete compatibility testing on the Plataberget testnet in advance.
EIP-12188 proposes a shorter CL block retention window
Ethereum developer kevaundray submitted EIP-12188, proposing a shorter consensus-layer block retention window to reduce node storage usage. The proposal has now entered public review.
Client developers including those working on Lighthouse expressed support. Discussion around the proposal said that even if the execution layer later trims more historical data, the main effect would fall on old-block query capability rather than network security or normal node operations.
New post-quantum deposit contract EIP under discussion
The Ethereum community has also proposed a new deposit contract EIP designed for the post-quantum era. It would support variable-length public keys and credential metadata, and distinguish cryptographic schemes through scheme identifiers, with scheme 0 reserved for current BLS deposits.
The new contract would no longer depend on the old deposit contract’s Merkle tree. Instead, it would use the execution-layer request mechanism in EIP-7685 to pass deposit data into the consensus layer. The design also includes an irreversible migration switch that can first be enabled at a preset time and later permanently disable new BLS deposits, laying groundwork for a future shift to post-quantum signature schemes.
Ethereum is currently studying post-quantum migration for BLS and other key consensus-layer cryptographic components.
L2 scaling race: Arbitrum, OP Mainnet, and Base push latency lower
Arbitrum says real mainnet blocks can be proven with SP1
Arbitrum disclosed that real Arbitrum mainnet blocks can now be used to generate ZK proofs with SP1, and Stylus WASM has also entered the proving system. More importantly, BoLD has been extended to accept ZK proofs.
That means when a proof is available, the system can bypass the slower traditional challenge-window path. If no proof is available, it can still fall back to fraud proofs. In practice, the design is moving toward a multi-proving architecture built around ZK proofs, attestation, and fraud proofs.
ArbOS 61 Elara activated after governance approval
Following governance approval, Arbitrum activated the ArbOS 61 “Elara” upgrade. It adds optional protocol-level transaction filtering, priority fee support, and alternative data availability interfaces for Orbit chains, and raises the Stylus contract code size cap from 24 KB to 96 KB.
Compliance filtering is off by default and can be enabled by Orbit chain owners through their chosen compliance providers. Arbitrum One and Nova have not enabled it. Priority fees on Arbitrum One still require a separate DAO vote, and the base fee management range has been adjusted to 0.01 to 0.10 gwei.
OP Mainnet upgrades from 250ms Flashblocks to 200ms Subblocks
OP Mainnet said its sequencer infrastructure upgrade is complete, moving from 250ms Flashblocks to 200ms Subblocks. The network remained operational throughout the upgrade.
Base outlines a 200ms Native Blocks plan
Base unveiled its 200ms Native Blocks plan, aiming to shorten native L2 block production time to 200ms.
Unlike the current Flashblocks system, which only provides intermediate preconfirmations while a full block is being assembled, Native Blocks would create a real canonical L2 block every 200ms, each with its own block number, hash, state root, and receipt.
Base plans to gradually replace Flashblocks with Native Blocks in a later Denim upgrade. The feature is still at the planning stage and has not gone live on mainnet.
Solana: 350ms slot time approaches as governance results land
Research paper describes a clock attack on older consensus design
Researchers disclosed a clock attack against older Solana Proof-of-History and TowerBFT consensus mechanisms at the USENIX Security 2026 conference.
The attack lets a malicious validator re-anchor PoH timing state, extending its effective block production window and, under specific conditions, affecting block proposals by honest validators. Because the attack depends on older consensus machinery that the planned Alpenglow upgrade is set to replace, the rules for Anza’s 50,000 SOL Alpenglow security competition may not have covered it.
The researchers said the Solana team received the disclosure in December 2025 and believes the future Alpenglow upgrade will remove the conditions required for the attack. At the same time, no public implementation analysis of the exploit has been released. The study did not show the attack was used on mainnet, and it found no fund losses or breach of consensus safety.
Mainnet slot time to drop to 350ms from epoch 1020
Solana developer Brennan Watt said the first reduction in mainnet slot time is about to take effect. Slot time will fall to 350ms and will formally take effect starting from epoch 1020.
Because some SDK constants have not yet been updated, and because the feature uses delayed activation, the change enters pending status in epoch E, activates in E+1, and only becomes effective in E+2. Applications that depend on SDK constants matching mainnet parameters may need extra adaptation during the transition.
The team plans to publish updated SDK parameters after activation and, over the longer term, is considering putting those parameters on-chain so clients can query them directly.
First on-chain governance round passes two proposals, rejects one
Solana’s first round of on-chain governance voting has ended. SGP-0001, “Solana Constitution,” and SGP-0002, “Double Disinflation,” passed. SGP-0003, “Resource and Inclusion Fee,” did not.
- SGP-0001 received 86.0% support.
- SGP-0002 received 67.0%, just above the two-thirds threshold.
- SGP-0003 received 53.9%, below the required level.
SGP-0002 would raise the annual SOL disinflation rate from 15% to 30%. If later implemented, it is expected to bring the time to the 1.5% terminal inflation rate forward from about 2032 to 2029 and reduce new SOL issuance by about 18.9 million over six years.
SGP-0003 would have split the current base transaction fee into a fixed Inclusion Fee and a Resource Fee calculated by resource usage and then burned.
SIMD-0437 phase one goes live on testnet
Anza said phase one of SIMD-0437, which aims to reduce Solana rent costs, is now live on testnet.
The proposal is designed to roll out in five phases and ultimately cut Solana’s per-byte storage cost by 90%, bringing lamports_per_byte from 6,960 down to 696. Using token accounts as an example, the rent-exempt deposit is expected to drop from about $0.16 to $0.016, lowering the cost of account creation and application deployment.
Polygon, BNB Chain, and Hyperliquid updates
Polygon warns old PoS binaries are outside canonical consensus
According to the report, Polygon Labs issued a security review and emergency client upgrade notice saying that after the Austin and Kyoto hard forks in August, Polygon PoS nodes still running old binaries had fallen out of canonical consensus and must upgrade and resync.
On the consensus side, the Heimdall client activated the Kyoto upgrade at block height 51,533,000 on Aug. 18 and requires version v0.11.0. The upgrade mainly addressed nested message abuse, fee token scanning, and checkpoint edge cases.
BNB Smart Chain activates the Pasteur hard fork
BNB Smart Chain activated the Pasteur hard fork on mainnet at 10:30 UTC+8 on Aug. 25.
The upgrade strengthens cross-chain bridge verification, validator key rotation, and governance security through BEP-682 and BEP-695, while BEP-675 increases block transaction capacity. Testnet data showed throughput rising from 1,237 TPS to 2,324 TPS with no change to block time or gas limit, though that figure is not a mainnet performance reading.
Hyperliquid advances HIP-4 on testnet and prepares permissionless deployment
Hyperliquid founder Jeff Yan said the HIP-4 implementation on testnet now includes three updates. It supports delegated permissions for sub-deployers, letting a primary deployer assign specific actions to different addresses. Outcome market deployment has been split out of spotDeploy into an independent top-level action, which is a breaking change to the testnet spec. HyperEVM spot-balance precompiles now also support Outcome, and developers can query token balances through L1Read sol.
Jeff also said permissionless HIP-4 deployment will be enabled in the next network upgrade, after which related templates will be opened progressively through validator voting.
Hyperliquid’s developer documentation shows that the HIP-4 testnet has now defined the deployment mechanism for Outcome markets in more detail. Validators first vote on market templates, then deployers can create YES/NO markets or multi-outcome question markets without permission based on those templates. Deployment itself does not charge gas, but capacity limits apply.
HIP-4 also supports delegating deployment and settlement permissions to sub-deployers and allows deployer fee splits. On the current testnet, each deployer may have up to 10 active Outcomes at once and can launch up to 50 per day. Active deployers must also continue meeting staking-related requirements.
Security alerts and other ecosystem developments
SlowMist flags malicious history in the VSCode plugin Solidity Pro
SlowMist warned that “Solidity Pro,” a VSCode plugin aimed at Solidity and Web3 developers, has a malicious supply-chain history.
Its analysis found that historical versions published under the identities helper-beeps and web3devtoolsx contained credential theft, remote payload execution, and remote VSIX update capabilities. Although those malicious features were removed in later versions, the codebase still retains malicious source remnants and traces of prior publishers.
SlowMist said checking only the current version creates blind spots and can make plugins with malicious histories appear clean or low risk. It argued that plugin reviews should cover version history, publisher changes, build provenance, and remote-control behavior.
Zodl 3.9.0 launches on Android with guided migration tooling
Zodl 3.9.0 has launched on Android with a guided migration tool that lets users move ZEC from the Orchard privacy pool to the Ironwood privacy pool.
Users can split balances and migrate in batches or move funds immediately in a single transaction. Because funds can be observed on-chain while passing through the protocol’s “revolving door,” the team recommends batch migration to avoid exposing the full balance at once.
The release also adds Tor protection during migration, progress notifications, Keystone support, and the next-generation sync engine ZODL Slipstream v0.6.4 to improve wallet recovery and day-to-day sync speed. The iOS version is expected early next week.
Stacks completes Satoshi Upgrade I hard fork
Stacks co-founder Muneeb Ali said the Satoshi Upgrade I hard fork has been completed. With new signers online, network decentralization has increased further. Cycle 141 has about 392.4 million STX staked, roughly 80% of the historical peak level.
Cardano publishes the Dijkstra Era hard fork roadmap
Cardano has published a phased hard fork roadmap for the Dijkstra Era. In phase one, code completion and mainnet readiness are targeted for the fourth quarter of 2026, with an upgrade to protocol version 12 and major features including Ouroboros Linear Leios, Nested Transactions, and PlutusV4 Script Context. It will also add block structure and protocol parameters needed for Peras in advance.
Phase two is targeted for the second quarter of 2027, when Ouroboros Peras would be activated through an internal Dijkstra Era hard fork to speed up transaction finality.
The roadmap notes that those dates are targets for code completion and mainnet readiness only. Actual launch still depends on Preview and Pre-production testing, as well as on-chain approval from DReps, SPOs, and the constitutional committee.