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Contributing into Ethereum Protocol: How to Start

ETHCC[8] CANNES

EKATERINA RIAZANTSEVA

ETHEREUM PROTOCOL FELLOWSHIP

30 JUNE 2025

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Ekaterina Riazantseva

  • EPF alumna Cohort 5
  • EF grantee
  • Lodestar contributor

Sib_Katya

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Agenda

  1. Ethereum Protocol
  2. EIPs
  3. Specifications
  4. Development
  5. Testing
  6. Research
  7. Contributor support

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Ethereum Protocol

RESEARCH

EIPs

SPECIFICATIONS

DEVELOPMENT

TESTING

MAINNET

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Learning Protocol Basics

Specifications

Protocol Calls

PEEPanEIP

Core Development Talks

Ethereum Protocol Study Group

Ethereum.org

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Ethereum Improvement Proposals

https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-5069

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EIP contributor

Reviewers

Editors

Authors

EIP Editors Workshop

​

EIP-5069: EIP Editor Handbook

​

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EIPs support

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Core Development

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Essential parts

Main logic

Metrics and logging

API

Database

P2P

CLI

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Execution Layer

Consensus Layer

  • Beacon Chain
  • Validator
  • Block Proposing
  • State transition
  • Attestations
  • Sync committees
  • Staking
  • Fork Choice
  • Finality
  • Beacon API
  • State
  • EVM
  • Mempool
  • Block building
  • Transaction Processing
  • Execution API
  • Fee Market Logic

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Execution Clients

Consensus Clients

  1. Lighthouse (Rust)
  2. Prysm (Go)
  3. Teku (Java)
  4. Lodestar (TypeScript)
  5. Nimbus (Nim)
  6. Grandine (Rust)
  1. Geth (Go)
  2. Besu (Java)
  3. Nethermind (C#)
  4. Erigon (Go)
  5. Reth (Rust)

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Time for coding!

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Client Discord

Contributors Guide

Documentation

GitHub Repo

Kurtosis

Prerequisites

Docker

Git

Setup

Guides

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Next steps

Run the tests

Build the project

Run a node locally

Fork the repo

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Logs

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Good first issues

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Assign yourself

to the issue

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Working on a PR

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Discord

# developer

# contributor

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Some more ideas

Joining other contributors

Your own project

Hackathons

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Testing

Interop tests

Fuzzing

E2E tests

Integration tests

​

Unit tests

​

Spec tests

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Test and contribute!

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Dora in Kurtosis

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Spec tests

EXECUTION

CONSENSUS

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What about research?

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ETHEREUM MAGICIANS

ETHRESEAR.CH

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Additionally

Benchmarks

Analysis

Research calls

Ethereum R&D discord

Building prototypes

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Specifications

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Contributors Support Programs

EPS & EPF

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  • ethereum.org
  • epf.wiki
  • eth2book.info
  • devcon.org

Sib_Katya

Thank you!

Resources

KatyaRyazantseva

https://github.com/KatyaRyazantseva/

ethereum-protocol-contributor-resources