In optimistic mode, Nimbus will sync optimistically even when the
execution client is offline / not available.
An optimistic node is less secure because it has not validated block
transactions via the execution client and can thus not be used for
validation duties.
* avoid database race-condition inconsistency after fcU `INVALID` then crash
* ensure head doesn't fall behind finalized; add more tests for head movement/reloading DAG
The optimistic candidate block check that only imports a new block into
the EL client if its parent block also had execution enabled is not
needed anymore, as mainnet has merged and the attack period is over.
* more efficient forkchoiceUpdated usage
* await rather than asyncSpawn; ensure head update before dag.updateHead
* use action tracker rather than attached validators to check for next slot proposal; use wall slot + 1 rather than state slot + 1 to correctly check when missing blocks
* re-add two-fcU case for when newPayload not VALID
* check dynamicFeeRecipientsStore for potential proposal
* remove duplicate checks for whether next proposer
When the BN-embedded LC makes sync progress, pass the corresponding
execution block hash to the EL via `engine_forkchoiceUpdatedV1`.
This allows the EL to sync to wall slot while the chain DAG is behind.
Renamed `--light-client` to `--sync-light-client` for clarity, and
`--light-client-trusted-block-root` to `--trusted-block-root` for
consistency with `nimbus_light_client`.
Note that this does not work well in practice at this time:
- Geth sticks to the optimistic sync:
"Ignoring payload while snap syncing" (when passing the LC head)
"Forkchoice requested unknown head" (when updating to LC head)
- Nethermind syncs to LC head but does not report ancestors as VALID,
so the main forward sync is still stuck in optimistic mode:
"Pre-pivot block, ignored and returned Syncing"
To aid EL client teams in fixing those issues, having this available
as a hidden option is still useful.
The optimistic sync spec was updated since the LC based optsync module
was introduced. It is no longer necessary to wait for the justified
checkpoint to have execution enabled; instead, any block is okay to be
optimistically imported to the EL client, as long as its parent block
has execution enabled. Complex syncing logic has been removed, and the
LC optsync module will now follow gossip directly, reducing the latency
when using this module. Note that because this is now based on gossip
instead of using sync manager / request manager, that individual blocks
may be missed. However, EL clients should recover from this by fetching
missing blocks themselves.
When the EL fails to respond to `newPayload`, e.g., because connection
to the EL got interrupted, or due to misconfiguration, optimistic blocks
cannot be imported according to spec. This condition is treated the same
as if the peer returned a block with missing parent which gets the block
out of our processing queue, but can have nasty side effects.
For example, if sync manager asks for validation of a block known to be
in the finalized range, if it receives a `MissingParent` verdict, the
peer is immediately removed from the peer pool.
```
DBG 2022-08-24 11:45:26.874+02:00 newPayload: inserting block into execution engine parentHash=e4ca7424 blockHash=36cdc198 stateRoot=cf3902c1 receiptsRoot=56e81f17 prevRandao=0b49a172 blockNumber=1518089 gasLimit=30000000 gasUsed=0 timestamp=1657980396 extraDataLen=0 baseFeePerGas=7 numTransactions=0
ERR 2022-08-24 11:45:26.875+02:00 newPayload failed msg="Transport is not initialised (missing a call to connect?)"
DBG 2022-08-24 11:45:26.875+02:00 Block pool rejected peer's response topics="syncman" request=187232:32@1475 peer=16U*MsCJdx direction=forward blocks_map=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx blocks_count=31 ok=false unviable=false missing_parent=true sync_ident=main
ERR 2022-08-24 11:45:26.875+02:00 Unexpected missing parent at finalized epoch slot topics="syncman" request=187232:32@1475 peer=16U*MsCJdx direction=forward rewind_to_slot=187232 blocks_count=31 blocks_map=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx sync_ident=main
DBG 2022-08-24 11:45:26.875+02:00 Peer was removed from PeerPool due to low score topics="beacnde" peer=16U*MsCJdx peer_score=-1000 score_low_limit=0 score_high_limit=1000
DBG 2022-08-24 11:45:26.875+02:00 Lost connection to peer topics="networking" peer=16U*MsCJdx connections=0
```
By delaying issuing a verdict until the EL connection is restored and
`newPayload` successfully ran, the problem should be fixed. This also
induces back pressure to the sync manager by stopping download of new
blocks (or re-downloading the same block over and over again).
When the client was started without any validators, the doppelganger
detection structures were never initialized properly. Later, when
validators were added through the Keymanager API, they interacted
with the uninitialized doppelganger detection structures and their
duties were inappropriately skipped.
In order to avoid full replays when validating attestations hailing from
untaken forks, it's better to keep shufflings separate from `EpochRef`
and perform a lookahead on the shuffling when processing the block that
determines them.
This also helps performance in the case where REST clients are trying to
perform lookahead on attestation duties and decreases memory usage by
sharing shufflings between EpochRef instances of the same dependent
root.
The light client sync protocol employs heuristics to ensure it does not
become stuck during non-finality or low sync committee participation.
These can enable use cases that prefer availability of recent data
over security. For our syncing use case, though, security is preferred.
An option is added to light client processor to configure this tradeoff.
Whether new blocks/attestations/etc are produced internally or received
via REST, their journey through the node is the same - to ensure that
they get the same treatment (logging, metrics, processing), this PR
moves the routing to a dedicated module and fixes several small
differences that existed before.
* `xxxValidator` -> `processMessageName` - the processor also was adding
messages to pools, so we want the name to reflect that action
* add missing "sent" metrics for some messages
* document ignore policy better - already-seen messages are not actaully
rebroadcast by libp2p
* skip redundant signature checks for internal validators consistently
The justified and finalized `Checkpoint` are frequently passed around
together. This introduces a new `FinalityCheckpoint` data structure that
combines them into one.
Due to the large usage of this structure in fork choice, also took this
opportunity to update fork choice tests to the latest v1.2.0-rc.1 spec.
Many additional tests enabled, some need more work, e.g. EL mock blocks.
Also implemented `discard_equivocations` which was skipped in #3661,
and improved code reuse across fork choice logic while at it.
* optimistic sync
* flag that initially loaded blocks from database might need execution block root filled in
* return optimistic status in REST calls
* refactor blockslot pruning
* ensure beacon_blocks_by_{root,range} do not provide optimistic blocks
* handle forkchoice head being pre-merge with block being postmerge
* re-enable blocking head updates on validator duties
* fix is_optimistic_candidate_block per spec; don't crash with nil future
* fix is_optimistic_candidate_block per spec; don't crash with nil future
* mark blocks sans execution payloads valid during head update
Combines the LC data configuration options (serve / importMode), the
callbacks (finality / optimistic LC update) as well as the cache storing
light client data, into a new `LightClientDataStore` structure.
Also moves the structure into a light client specific file.
tersec
Jacek Sieka
zah
Etan Kissling
Miran