Aurora Engineering Updates January 25

Here’s a breakdown of each team’s contributions:

Engine Team

Prague hard fork implementation for Aurora EVM (code):
- EIP-2537: BLS12-381 precompiles
- EIP-7702: enhancement allows EOAs to function as smart contract accounts.
- EIP-7623: increase calldata cost to reduce maximum block size
  
  The release of these features of the Prague Fork for the Aurora Engine contract is planned for March. The other half will be released in the summer.
Adapted `exitTo…` precompiles due to the upcoming Omnibridge release:
- We’re deprecating the `exitToEthereum` precompile. Its usage should be replaced with the correct use of `exitToNear` precompile.
- The `exitToNear` will be backward compatible with old Rainbow Bridge usage, plus it will support new ways of interactions with the Omnibridge.

Infrastructure Team

Deployed new release of NEAR MPC on both testnet and mainnet: 300x Improved Bandwidth & 50% Reduced Latency for signatures. Here is an article about the updates.
NEAR Lake takeover was finished: we have deployed indexers, block storage on S3, and all needed AWS infrastructure.
Deployed next release of HOT MPC: two-factor authentication added.
Released update to standalone-rpc: fixes and improvements to snapshots downloading.
Deployed web3 tests for virtual chains: ensuring the stability of their infrastructure. Only the read methods were covered, the write-path, like `eth_sendRawTransaction`, will be monitored later.

Research Team

Trusted Execution Environments (TEE) research: TEE can be used to ensure that no key share from any of the MPC node operators can ever be leaked. We want to make sure that every node that participates in signing runs their MPC code inside TEE. This integration will prevent long range attacks and further strengthen the security of Chain Signatures on NEAR and Aurora’s virtual chains.
Review of NEP-568 “Resharding V3”: this proposal introduces a new resharding implementation and shard layout. The primary objective here is to increase chain capacity by splitting overutilized shards. A secondary aim is to lay the groundwork for supporting Dynamic Resharding, Instant Resharding, and Shard Merging in future updates.

Security Team

Security workflows: OmniBridge went through a big code restructure that changed some software components' file locations. We have corrected the metadata to reflect that. We're looking to capture lossy conversions in the contract code of the OmniBridge with these workflows.

Product Team

A new version of Aurora Cloud Console has been released: we have opened the possibility of launching an EVM chain free of charge to everybody. No coding is needed. More than 20 virtual chains were deployed in January.
Aurora Cloud Console developer interviews: we have been conducting interviews to get more feedback about the console from experienced devs. We’re looking for more developers to give us feedback and earn some $AURORA tokens, please fill in this form to apply.
BUIDL Conference in Lisbon: you should check out the presentation about Near Intents given there by Alex Shevchenko.
A new structure and a blog for docs: we have updated the look of the docs. Now, they have sections in the navigation bar, so you can orient yourself better. Also, the DevPortal is moving now to the Blog, and will be a part of the documentation from now on.
Disallowed “old” EVM addresses on RainbowBridge when withdrawing to NEAR: during the release of the EVM accounts on NEAR Protocol, there were already existing 0x accounts on the network. We have decided to leave them as-is and not deploy a special “wallet” contract to them, which all of the new accounts have. This means that EVM-owners of these accounts won’t be able to access them on NEAR. So, if they try to bridge the funds – they will be lost there if they don’t have a corresponding NEAR account private key. That is why we have forbidden using these “old” EVM addresses on Rainbow Bridge.

Near Intents Team

Support for Solana SPL tokens: now we can integrate Solana tokens into the ecosystem. You can try it out and deposit or withdraw USDC or TURBO tokens from Solana.
New deposit page design: we have improved the UX with a new components layout.
AMM-style solver example is ready: check it out in this repository.
Integrated ZCash: Zcash is a cryptocurrency built to empower economic freedom. It is similar to Bitcoin in its design — in fact, Zcash was created from the original Bitcoin code base — but it uses a privacy technology that encrypts transaction information and allows users to shield their assets.

About Aurora

Aurora is a network of Virtual Chains that combines NEAR’s scalability with powerful infrastructure for the easy deployment of preconfigured blockchains. By integrating a high-performance EVM, the trustless Rainbow Bridge, and advanced Cross Contract Call technology, Aurora goes beyond full Ethereum compatibility, opening the doors to a multichain world.