In Altair, light client sync protocol exchanges `BeaconBlockHeader`
structures for tracking current progress. Wrapping `BeaconBlockHeader`
inside a `LightClientHeader` allows future extensions of this header,
e.g., to also track `ExecutionPayloadHeader`.
Note: This changes the JSON REST format by adding a `beacon` nesting.
For SSZ, the serialization format stays same (but overall root changes).
While the light client sync protocol currently provides access to the
latest `BeaconBlockHeader`, obtaining the matching execution data needs
workarounds such as downloading the full block.
Having ready access to the EL state root simplifies use cases that need
a way to cross-check `eth_getProof` responses against LC data.
Access to `block_hash` unlocks scenarios where a CL light client drives
an EL without `engine_newPayload`. As of Altair, only the CL beacon
block root is available, but the EL block hash is needed for engine API.
Other fields in the `ExecutionPayloadHeader` such as `logs_bloom` may
allow light client applications to monitor blocks for local interest,
e.g. for transfers affecting a certain wallet. This enables to download
only the few relevant blocks instead of every single one.
A new `LightClientStore` is proposed into the Capella spec that may be
used to sync LC data that includes execution data. Existing pre-Capella
LC data will remain as is, but can be locally upgraded before feeding it
into the new `LightClientStore` so that light clients do not need to run
a potentially expensive fork transition at a specific time. This enables
the `LightClientStore` to be upgraded at a use case dependent timing at
any time before Capella hits. Smart contract and embedded deployments
benefit from reduced code size and do not need synchronization with the
beacon chain clock to perform the Capella fork.
Introduce `get_lc_beacon_slot` and `get_lc_beacon_root` accessors
similar to `get_current_slot(state)` to account for future extensions
to the light client header structure that may override how those fields
are accessed. Idea is to extend with execution accessors in the future.
Future light client tests will also incorporate execution payload data.
To avoid confusion, rename the current `root` check to `beacon_root`.
Doing this now, as #3066 already requires LC test runners to update.
Currently, `test_single_merkle_proof` only supports `BeaconState` tests.
For future tests, different object classes are desirable. Update format
to allow testing other objects as well.
Replaces `process_slot_for_light_client_store` which force updates the
`LightClientStore` automatically based on `finalized_header` age with
`try_light_client_store_force_update` which may be manually called based
on use case dependent heuristics if light client sync appears stuck.
Not all use cases share the same risk profile.
Adds `create_light_client_bootstrap` and `create_light_client_update`
functions as a reference implementation for serving light client data.
This also enables a new test harness to verify that light client data
gets applied to a `LightClientStore` as expected.
`LightClientUpdate` structures currently use different merkle proof root
depending on the presence of `finalized_header`. By always rooting it in
the same state (the `attested_header.state_root`), logic gets simpler.
Caveats:
- In periods of extended non-finality, `update.finalized_header` may now
be outdated by several sync committee periods. The old implementation
rejected such updates as the `next_sync_committee` in them was stale,
but the new implementation can properly handle this case.
- The `next_sync_committee` can no longer be considered finalized based
on `is_finality_update`. Instead, waiting until `finalized_header` is
in the `attested_header`'s sync committee period is now necessary.
- Because `update.finalized_header > store.finalized_header` no longer
holds (for updates with finality), an `is_better_update` helper is
added to improve `best_valid_update` tracking (in the past, finalized
updates with supermajority participation would always directly apply)
This PR builds on prior work from:
- @hwwhww at https://github.com/ethereum/consensus-specs/pull/2829
The existing README has a reference to an alias type `Bytes[N]` that has been removed from the repo so it is not clear what it exactly refers to.
This PR updates the type to the equivalent `List[T, N]` using more recent SSZ typing syntax.
Building merkle proofs is required functionality for implementing light
client sync. Although the spec currently only defines a function to
verify merkle proofs (`is_valid_merkle_branch`) there are still a few
PySpec unit tests that produce merkle proofs. This patch adds a new
generator to extract test vectors from those static unit tests, so that
light client implementations can validate their merkle proof logic.
