Make a call to eth.get_block after establishing an EthereumClient with middlewares to ensure that poa middleware, if needed, works correctly.

nucypher/blockchain/eth/clients.py

@@ -13,7 +13,6 @@ from web3.types import TxReceipt, Wei
 
 from nucypher.blockchain.eth.constants import (
     AVERAGE_BLOCK_TIME_IN_SECONDS,
-    POA_CHAINS,
     PUBLIC_CHAINS,
 )
 from nucypher.blockchain.middleware.poa import create_poa_error_redundancy_middleware
@@ -94,14 +93,6 @@ class EthereumClient:
             self.log.debug("Adding RPC retry middleware to client")
             self.add_middleware(RetryRequestMiddleware, name="retry")
 
-        # poa middleware
-        chain_id = self.chain_id
-        is_poa = chain_id in POA_CHAINS
-
-        self.log.info(
-            f"Blockchain: {self.chain_name} (chain_id={chain_id}, poa={is_poa})"
-        )
-
         # add POA middleware irrespective of chain
         poa_middleware_name = "poa"
         self.log.info("Injecting POA middleware at layer 0")

nucypher/blockchain/eth/interfaces.py

@@ -331,6 +331,13 @@ class BlockchainInterface:
             # client mutates w3 instance (configures middleware etc.)
             self.client = EthereumClient(w3=self.w3)
 
+            # log info
+            latest_block_number = self.client.get_block("latest")["number"]
+            chain_id = self.client.chain_id
+            self.log.info(
+                f"Blockchain: {self.client.chain_name} (chain_id={chain_id}, block_num={latest_block_number})"
+            )
+
             # web3 instance fully configured; share instance with ATxM and respective strategies
             speedup_strategy = ExponentialSpeedupStrategy(
                 w3=self.w3,

tests/unit/test_web3_clients.py

@@ -51,9 +51,12 @@ class SyncedMockW3Eth:
     chain_id = hex(CHAIN_ID)
     block_number = 5
 
-    def getBlock(self, blockNumber):
+    def get_block(self, blockNumber):
         return {
-            'timestamp': datetime.datetime.timestamp(datetime.datetime.now() - datetime.timedelta(seconds=25))
+            "timestamp": datetime.datetime.timestamp(
+                datetime.datetime.now() - datetime.timedelta(seconds=25)
+            ),
+            "number": 123456789,
         }