bab5e402df
* Ignore subset aggregates When aggregates are propagated through the network, it is often the case that a better aggregate has already been seen - in particular, this happens when an aggregator has not been able to include itself in the mesh and therefore publishes an aggregate with only its own attestations. This new ignore rule allows dropping all aggregates that are (non-strict) subsets of aggregates that have already been seen on the network. In particular, it does not mandate dropping aggregates where a union of previous aggregates would cause it to become a subset). The logic for allowing this is based on the premise that any aggregate that has already been seen by a peer will also have been seen by its neighbours - a subset aggregate (strict or not) brings no new value to the aggregation algorithm, except in the extreme edge case where you could combine several such sparse aggregates into a single, more dense "combined" aggregate and thus use less block space. Further, as a small benefit, computing the `hash_tree_root` of the full aggregate is generally not done -however, `hash_tree_root(data)` is already done for other purposes as this is used as index in the beacon API. * add subset ignore rule to sync contributions as well * typo
Ethereum Proof-of-Stake Consensus Specifications
To learn more about proof-of-stake and sharding, see the PoS FAQ, sharding FAQ 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.
The current features are:
Phase 0
- The Beacon Chain
- Beacon Chain Fork Choice
- Deposit Contract
- Honest Validator
- P2P Networking
- Weak Subjectivity
Altair
- Beacon chain changes
- Altair fork
- Light client sync protocol
- Honest Validator guide changes
- P2P Networking
Bellatrix (also known as The Merge)
The Bellatrix protocol upgrade is still actively in development. The exact specification has not been formally accepted as final and details are still subject to change.
- Background material:
- An ethresear.ch post describing the basic mechanism of the CL+EL merge
- ethereum.org high-level description of the CL+EL merge here
- Specifications:
Sharding
Sharding follows Bellatrix, and is divided into three parts:
- Sharding base functionality - In early engineering phase
- Custody Game - Ready, dependent on sharding
- Data Availability Sampling - In active R&D
- Technical details here.
- Core types and functions
- P2P Networking
- Fork Choice
- Sampling process
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:
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.