Devcon 2024 in Bangkok has come to a close, and we at Amber Group are proud to have participated in such an important event for the Ethereum community. This year, our team shared cutting-edge developments in key areas of the Ethereum ecosystem, from transaction querying and node optimization to security research.

For those who couldn’t attend, here’s a recap of the key highlights:

JSON-RPC Enhancement in Geth: Optimizing Transaction and Trace Querying 

Our presence at DevCon kicked off with a session focused on improving how developers interact with Ethereum’s execution clients. We shared updates that make it easier to track and analyze Ethereum transactions with more precision.

In this session, we introduced major improvements to Ethereum’s execution clients (Geth) by extending the JSON-RPC API to include a new `trace_*` namespace and the method `eth_getTransactionBySenderAndNonce`. These updates are designed to enhance transaction and trace querying capabilities, providing developers with a much-needed tool to analyze Ethereum transactions with greater precision.

We leveraged Geth’s live tracer capability and its built-in tracers to support real-time indexing of transaction traces. This enhancement allows for querying with O(1) time complexity, significantly reducing the CPU and memory usage compared to the legacy debug RPC methods. These enhancements allow for deeper insights into the behavior of transactions, which is invaluable for debugging, monitoring, and building complex decentralized applications (dApps). These features significantly improve the ability to trace, validate, and audit transactions, giving developers the data they need to better understand the state of the Ethereum network and their applications.

If you missed this session, you can watch the full recording here: : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kO-LVS3tO4&t=525s&ab_channel=EthereumFoundation

Optimizing Full Node Costs with Monitoring Tools

Running a full node is a core component of participating in Ethereum’s decentralized network. However, the operational cost associated with maintaining a full node — particularly archive nodes — can be prohibitively high. In this session, our team presented our innovative approach to reducing full node infrastructure costs through intelligent monitoring and optimization.

Using a combination of tools like pprof, Grafana, and Prometheus, we demonstrated how our organization has successfully minimized the CPU, memory, and storage requirements of running a full node. By profiling node resource consumption and monitoring performance in real-time, we’ve been able to significantly reduce the operational costs of Ethereum infrastructure, making it more accessible and sustainable for developers and operators.

For anyone running nodes in a production environment or considering setting up a node, this session provides valuable insights into how to optimize your infrastructure and keep costs under control. Watch the session recording for a deeper dive into our strategies and practical advice on node optimization. 

Access the session details here: https://app.devcon.org/schedule/D9UAVG

Reverse Engineering EVM Bytecode with Ghidra: Empowering Smart Contract Security  

Security continues to be one of the most pressing concerns for Ethereum developers, and at Amber, we’re committed to advancing the tools that make smart contract auditing easier and more effective. During our Reverse Engineering EVM Bytecode with Ghidra workshop, we introduced Mothra, a Ghidra extension developed by our team that enables Ghidra to work with EVM bytecode.

Ghidra, a widely-used tool for software reverse engineering, has long been a staple for analyzing compiled software, but until now, it hasn’t been optimized for EVM bytecode. Our Mothra extension changes that by enabling Ghidra to disassemble, decompile, and analyze the control flow graph (CFG) of Ethereum bytecode. This breakthrough empowers developers to perform in-depth security audits and reverse engineer smart contracts with greater ease, making it a valuable addition to the toolkit of anyone working in Ethereum smart contract security.

At Devcon, our team had the honor of presenting how to utilize Mothra for reverse-engineering EVM bytecode, showcasing its capabilities to a captivated audience. We are also excited to announce that we will be presenting Mothra at Black Hat Europe 2024 in London this December. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to advance security tools for the Ethereum community! 

In Conclusion: Amber’s Ongoing Commitment to Ethereum Innovation  

Amber’s participation at Devcon 2024 reinforced our commitment to supporting the Ethereum ecosystem with practical, impactful tools that drive both innovation and efficiency. From enhancing the transaction querying capabilities in Ethereum clients to optimizing node infrastructure costs and advancing the security of smart contract auditing, our sessions this year offered both technical depth and real-world solutions for Ethereum developers.

If you weren’t able to attend in person, we encourage you to take advantage of the session recordings. Our team has worked hard to bring forward-thinking, actionable insights that are designed to benefit developers and node operators across the Ethereum ecosystem. Whether you’re building new dApps, managing node infrastructure, or securing smart contracts, the tools and strategies shared at our sessions are invaluable resources for anyone working with Ethereum.

Thank you to everyone who joined us in Bangkok, and to those who are catching up through the recordings. Stay tuned for more from Amber as we continue to push the boundaries of Ethereum development.