0b95012c2e
As a complement to https://github.com/ethereum/consensus-specs/pull/3787, this PR introduces a `SingleAttestation` type used for network propagation only. In Electra, the on-chain attestation format introduced in [EIP-7549](https://github.com/ethereum/consensus-specs/pull/3559) presents several difficulties - not only are the new fields to be interpreted differently during network processing and onchain which adds complexity in clients, they also introduce inefficiency both in hash computation and bandwidth. The new type puts the validator and committee indices directly in the attestation type, this simplifying processing and increasing security. * placing the validator index directly in the attestation allows verifying the signature without computing a shuffling - this closes a loophole where clients either must drop attestations or risk being overwhelmed by shuffling computations during attestation verification * the simpler "structure" of the attestation saves several hash calls during processing (a single-item List has significant hashing overhead compared to a field) * we save a few bytes here and there - we can also put stricter bounds on message size on the attestation topic because `SingleAttestation` is now fixed-size * the ambiguity of interpreting the `attestation_bits` list indices which became contextual under EIP-7549 is removed Because this change only affects the network encoding (and not block contents), the implementation impact on clients should be minimal.
Ethereum Proof-of-Stake Consensus Specifications
To learn more about proof-of-stake and sharding, see the PoS documentation, sharding documentation and the research compendium.
This repository hosts the current Ethereum proof-of-stake specifications. Discussions about design rationale and proposed changes can be brought up and discussed as issues. Solidified, agreed-upon changes to the spec can be made through pull requests.
Specs
Core specifications for Ethereum proof-of-stake clients can be found in specs. These are divided into features. Features are researched and developed in parallel, and then consolidated into sequential upgrades when ready.
Stable Specifications
| Seq. | Code Name | Fork Epoch | Specs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Phase0 | 0 |
|
| 1 | Altair | 74240 |
|
| 2 | Bellatrix ("The Merge") |
144896 |
|
| 3 | Capella | 194048 |
|
| 4 | Deneb | 269568 |
In-development Specifications
| Code Name or Topic | Specs | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Electra | ||
| Sharding (outdated) |
|
|
| Custody Game (outdated) |
|
Dependent on sharding |
| Data Availability Sampling (outdated) |
|
Accompanying documents can be found in specs and include:
Additional specifications for client implementers
Additional specifications and standards outside of requisite client functionality can be found in the following repos:
Design goals
The following are the broad design goals for the Ethereum proof-of-stake consensus specifications:
- to minimize complexity, even at the cost of some losses in efficiency
- to remain live through major network partitions and when very large portions of nodes go offline
- to select all components such that they are either quantum secure or can be easily swapped out for quantum secure counterparts when available
- to utilize crypto and design techniques that allow for a large participation of validators in total and per unit time
- to allow for a typical consumer laptop with
O(C)resources to process/validateO(1)shards (including any system level validation such as the beacon chain)
Useful external resources
For spec contributors
Documentation on the different components used during spec writing can be found here:
Online viewer of the latest release (latest master branch)
Consensus spec tests
Conformance tests built from the executable python spec are available in the Ethereum Proof-of-Stake Consensus Spec Tests repo. Compressed tarballs are available in releases.