The Ether: Tuesday, July 21, 2026
Blocks: 25,577,370 - 25,584,544
Slots: 14,813,999 - 14,821,198
Posted to Farcaster.
Aztec's privacy-focused layer 2 for Ethereum now lets users run cryptographic proofs on their own devices instead of servers, making the network faster and more decentralized.
More: The Block
Morpho's new protocol lets users lock in interest rates for lending over set terms, starting with USDC loans backed by Bitcoin, reducing uncertainty in crypto lending.
More: Bankless
A research framework for preserving state consistency across different blockchain domains or systems.
Flashbots is requesting that builders be included in MEV-Share's downstream forwarding mechanism to expand participation in fair MEV distribution.
A patch release that applies Microsoft security fixes to the .NET runtime and makes the eth_getLogs block-range limit configurable for node operators.
The Lighthouse consensus client has shipped a new version with bug fixes and routine maintenance.
A forum post claims part of Optimism's upcoming Lagoon upgrade would accept forged gas refunds from a malicious sequencer. The Optimism team has not verified it, and it is not exploitable while Lagoon remains unactivated.
The Swell liquid staking protocol is being transferred to AltLayer, a restaking infrastructure provider, through a formal governance process on Optimism.
A new Ethereum standard proposes using NFTs as tickets for prediction markets that automatically price outcomes using logarithmic market scoring rules.
The ethrex Ethereum client adds fixes for stalled syncing nodes, bad-block tracking, and better mempool handling under heavy load.
Also in the news this day
Stories that gathered new coverage this day but broke earlier, so they live on their own day's page.