## Issue Addressed
NA
## Proposed Changes
- Implements https://github.com/ethereum/consensus-specs/pull/3290/
- Bumps `ef-tests` to [v1.3.0-rc.4](https://github.com/ethereum/consensus-spec-tests/releases/tag/v1.3.0-rc.4).
The `CountRealizedFull` concept has been removed and the `--count-unrealized-full` and `--count-unrealized` BN flags now do nothing but log a `WARN` when used.
## Database Migration Debt
This PR removes the `best_justified_checkpoint` from fork choice. This field is persisted on-disk and the correct way to go about this would be to make a DB migration to remove the field. However, in this PR I've simply stubbed out the value with a junk value. I've taken this approach because if we're going to do a DB migration I'd love to remove the `Option`s around the justified and finalized checkpoints on `ProtoNode` whilst we're at it. Those options were added in #2822 which was included in Lighthouse v2.1.0. The options were only put there to handle the migration and they've been set to `Some` ever since v2.1.0. There's no reason to keep them as options anymore.
I started adding the DB migration to this branch but I started to feel like I was bloating this rather critical PR with nice-to-haves. I've kept the partially-complete migration [over in my repo](https://github.com/paulhauner/lighthouse/tree/fc-pr-18-migration) so we can pick it up after this PR is merged.
This PR enables the user to adjust the shuffling cache size.
This is useful for some HTTP API requests which require re-computing old shufflings. This PR currently optimizes the
beacon/states/{state_id}/committees HTTP API by first checking the cache before re-building shuffling.
If the shuffling is set to a non-default value, then the HTTP API request will also fill the cache when as it constructs new shufflings.
If the CLI flag is not present or the value is set to the default of 16 the default behaviour is observed.
Co-authored-by: Michael Sproul <michael@sigmaprime.io>
## Proposed Changes
Two tiny updates to satisfy Clippy 1.68
Plus refactoring of the `http_api` into less complex types so the compiler can chew and digest them more easily.
Co-authored-by: Michael Sproul <michael@sigmaprime.io>
## Issue Addressed
Cleans up all the remnants of 4844 in capella. This makes sure when 4844 is reviewed there is nothing we are missing because it got included here
## Proposed Changes
drop a bomb on every 4844 thing
## Additional Info
Merge process I did (locally) is as follows:
- squash merge to produce one commit
- in new branch off unstable with the squashed commit create a `git revert HEAD` commit
- merge that new branch onto 4844 with `--strategy ours`
- compare local 4844 to remote 4844 and make sure the diff is empty
- enjoy
Co-authored-by: Paul Hauner <paul@paulhauner.com>
## Proposed Changes
With proposer boosting implemented (#2822) we have an opportunity to re-org out late blocks.
This PR adds three flags to the BN to control this behaviour:
* `--disable-proposer-reorgs`: turn aggressive re-orging off (it's on by default).
* `--proposer-reorg-threshold N`: attempt to orphan blocks with less than N% of the committee vote. If this parameter isn't set then N defaults to 20% when the feature is enabled.
* `--proposer-reorg-epochs-since-finalization N`: only attempt to re-org late blocks when the number of epochs since finalization is less than or equal to N. The default is 2 epochs, meaning re-orgs will only be attempted when the chain is finalizing optimally.
For safety Lighthouse will only attempt a re-org under very specific conditions:
1. The block being proposed is 1 slot after the canonical head, and the canonical head is 1 slot after its parent. i.e. at slot `n + 1` rather than building on the block from slot `n` we build on the block from slot `n - 1`.
2. The current canonical head received less than N% of the committee vote. N should be set depending on the proposer boost fraction itself, the fraction of the network that is believed to be applying it, and the size of the largest entity that could be hoarding votes.
3. The current canonical head arrived after the attestation deadline from our perspective. This condition was only added to support suppression of forkchoiceUpdated messages, but makes intuitive sense.
4. The block is being proposed in the first 2 seconds of the slot. This gives it time to propagate and receive the proposer boost.
## Additional Info
For the initial idea and background, see: https://github.com/ethereum/consensus-specs/pull/2353#issuecomment-950238004
There is also a specification for this feature here: https://github.com/ethereum/consensus-specs/pull/3034
Co-authored-by: Michael Sproul <micsproul@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: pawan <pawandhananjay@gmail.com>
## Issue Addressed
Implementing the light_client_gossip topics but I'm not there yet.
Which issue # does this PR address?
Partially #3651
## Proposed Changes
Add light client gossip topics.
Please list or describe the changes introduced by this PR.
I'm going to Implement light_client_finality_update and light_client_optimistic_update gossip topics. Currently I've attempted the former and I'm seeking feedback.
## Additional Info
I've only implemented the light_client_finality_update topic because I wanted to make sure I was on the correct path. Also checking that the gossiped LightClientFinalityUpdate is the same as the locally constructed one is not implemented because caching the updates will make this much easier. Could someone give me some feedback on this please?
Please provide any additional information. For example, future considerations
or information useful for reviewers.
Co-authored-by: GeemoCandama <104614073+GeemoCandama@users.noreply.github.com>
## Issue Addressed
#3724
## Proposed Changes
Exposes certain `validator_monitor` as an endpoint on the HTTP API. Will only return metrics for validators which are actively being monitored.
### Usage
```bash
curl -X GET "http://localhost:5052/lighthouse/ui/validator_metrics" -H "accept: application/json" | jq
```
```json
{
"data": {
"validators": {
"12345": {
"attestation_hits": 10,
"attestation_misses": 0,
"attestation_hit_percentage": 100,
"attestation_head_hits": 10,
"attestation_head_misses": 0,
"attestation_head_hit_percentage": 100,
"attestation_target_hits": 5,
"attestation_target_misses": 5,
"attestation_target_hit_percentage": 50
}
}
}
}
```
## Additional Info
Based on #3756 which should be merged first.
## Issue Addressed
#3704
## Proposed Changes
Adds is_syncing_finalized: bool parameter for block verification functions. Sets the payload_verification_status to Optimistic if is_syncing_finalized is true. Uses SyncState in NetworkGlobals in BeaconProcessor to retrieve the syncing status.
## Additional Info
I could implement FinalizedSignatureVerifiedBlock if you think it would be nicer.
## Summary
The deposit cache now has the ability to finalize deposits. This will cause it to drop unneeded deposit logs and hashes in the deposit Merkle tree that are no longer required to construct deposit proofs. The cache is finalized whenever the latest finalized checkpoint has a new `Eth1Data` with all deposits imported.
This has three benefits:
1. Improves the speed of constructing Merkle proofs for deposits as we can just replay deposits since the last finalized checkpoint instead of all historical deposits when re-constructing the Merkle tree.
2. Significantly faster weak subjectivity sync as the deposit cache can be transferred to the newly syncing node in compressed form. The Merkle tree that stores `N` finalized deposits requires a maximum of `log2(N)` hashes. The newly syncing node then only needs to download deposits since the last finalized checkpoint to have a full tree.
3. Future proofing in preparation for [EIP-4444](https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-4444) as execution nodes will no longer be required to store logs permanently so we won't always have all historical logs available to us.
## More Details
Image to illustrate how the deposit contract merkle tree evolves and finalizes along with the resulting `DepositTreeSnapshot`
## Other Considerations
I've changed the structure of the `SszDepositCache` so once you load & save your database from this version of lighthouse, you will no longer be able to load it from older versions.
Co-authored-by: ethDreamer <37123614+ethDreamer@users.noreply.github.com>
## Issue Addressed
NA
## Proposed Changes
This PR removes duplicated block root computation.
Computing the `SignedBeaconBlock::canonical_root` has become more expensive since the merge as we need to compute the merke root of each transaction inside an `ExecutionPayload`.
Computing the root for [a mainnet block](https://beaconcha.in/slot/4704236) is taking ~10ms on my i7-8700K CPU @ 3.70GHz (no sha extensions). Given that our median seen-to-imported time for blocks is presently 300-400ms, removing a few duplicated block roots (~30ms) could represent an easy 10% improvement. When we consider that the seen-to-imported times include operations *after* the block has been placed in the early attester cache, we could expect the 30ms to be more significant WRT our seen-to-attestable times.
## Additional Info
NA
## Issue Addressed
Add a flag that can increase count unrealized strictness, defaults to false
## Proposed Changes
Please list or describe the changes introduced by this PR.
## Additional Info
Please provide any additional information. For example, future considerations
or information useful for reviewers.
Co-authored-by: realbigsean <seananderson33@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: sean <seananderson33@gmail.com>
## Issue Addressed
#3032
## Proposed Changes
Pause sync when ee is offline. Changes include three main parts:
- Online/offline notification system
- Pause sync
- Resume sync
#### Online/offline notification system
- The engine state is now guarded behind a new struct `State` that ensures every change is correctly notified. Notifications are only sent if the state changes. The new `State` is behind a `RwLock` (as before) as the synchronization mechanism.
- The actual notification channel is a [tokio::sync::watch](https://docs.rs/tokio/latest/tokio/sync/watch/index.html) which ensures only the last value is in the receiver channel. This way we don't need to worry about message order etc.
- Sync waits for state changes concurrently with normal messages.
#### Pause Sync
Sync has four components, pausing is done differently in each:
- **Block lookups**: Disabled while in this state. We drop current requests and don't search for new blocks. Block lookups are infrequent and I don't think it's worth the extra logic of keeping these and delaying processing. If we later see that this is required, we can add it.
- **Parent lookups**: Disabled while in this state. We drop current requests and don't search for new parents. Parent lookups are even less frequent and I don't think it's worth the extra logic of keeping these and delaying processing. If we later see that this is required, we can add it.
- **Range**: Chains don't send batches for processing to the beacon processor. This is easily done by guarding the channel to the beacon processor and giving it access only if the ee is responsive. I find this the simplest and most powerful approach since we don't need to deal with new sync states and chain segments that are added while the ee is offline will follow the same logic without needing to synchronize a shared state among those. Another advantage of passive pause vs active pause is that we can still keep track of active advertised chain segments so that on resume we don't need to re-evaluate all our peers.
- **Backfill**: Not affected by ee states, we don't pause.
#### Resume Sync
- **Block lookups**: Enabled again.
- **Parent lookups**: Enabled again.
- **Range**: Active resume. Since the only real pause range does is not sending batches for processing, resume makes all chains that are holding read-for-processing batches send them.
- **Backfill**: Not affected by ee states, no need to resume.
## Additional Info
**QUESTION**: Originally I made this to notify and change on synced state, but @pawanjay176 on talks with @paulhauner concluded we only need to check online/offline states. The upcheck function mentions extra checks to have a very up to date sync status to aid the networking stack. However, the only need the networking stack would have is this one. I added a TODO to review if the extra check can be removed
Next gen of #3094
Will work best with #3439
Co-authored-by: Pawan Dhananjay <pawandhananjay@gmail.com>
## Issue Addressed
NA
## Proposed Changes
Modifies `lcli skip-slots` and `lcli transition-blocks` allow them to source blocks/states from a beaconAPI and also gives them some more features to assist with benchmarking.
## Additional Info
Breaks the current `lcli skip-slots` and `lcli transition-blocks` APIs by changing some flag names. It should be simple enough to figure out the changes via `--help`.
Currently blocked on #3263.
## Issue Addressed
https://github.com/sigp/lighthouse/issues/3091
Extends https://github.com/sigp/lighthouse/pull/3062, adding pre-bellatrix block support on blinded endpoints and allowing the normal proposal flow (local payload construction) on blinded endpoints. This resulted in better fallback logic because the VC will not have to switch endpoints on failure in the BN <> Builder API, the BN can just fallback immediately and without repeating block processing that it shouldn't need to. We can also keep VC fallback from the VC<>BN API's blinded endpoint to full endpoint.
## Proposed Changes
- Pre-bellatrix blocks on blinded endpoints
- Add a new `PayloadCache` to the execution layer
- Better fallback-from-builder logic
## Todos
- [x] Remove VC transition logic
- [x] Add logic to only enable builder flow after Merge transition finalization
- [x] Tests
- [x] Fix metrics
- [x] Rustdocs
Co-authored-by: Mac L <mjladson@pm.me>
Co-authored-by: realbigsean <sean@sigmaprime.io>
## Issue Addressed
Add a flag that optionally enables unrealized vote tracking. Would like to test out on testnets and benchmark differences in methods of vote tracking. This PR includes a DB schema upgrade to enable to new vote tracking style.
Co-authored-by: realbigsean <sean@sigmaprime.io>
Co-authored-by: Paul Hauner <paul@paulhauner.com>
Co-authored-by: sean <seananderson33@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Mac L <mjladson@pm.me>
## Issue Addressed
Closes https://github.com/sigp/lighthouse/issues/3189.
## Proposed Changes
- Always supply the justified block hash as the `safe_block_hash` when calling `forkchoiceUpdated` on the execution engine.
- Refactor the `get_payload` routine to use the new `ForkchoiceUpdateParameters` struct rather than just the `finalized_block_hash`. I think this is a nice simplification and that the old way of computing the `finalized_block_hash` was unnecessary, but if anyone sees reason to keep that approach LMK.
## Issue Addressed
Resolves#3249
## Proposed Changes
Log merge related parameters and EE status in the beacon notifier before the merge.
Co-authored-by: Paul Hauner <paul@paulhauner.com>
## Overview
This rather extensive PR achieves two primary goals:
1. Uses the finalized/justified checkpoints of fork choice (FC), rather than that of the head state.
2. Refactors fork choice, block production and block processing to `async` functions.
Additionally, it achieves:
- Concurrent forkchoice updates to the EL and cache pruning after a new head is selected.
- Concurrent "block packing" (attestations, etc) and execution payload retrieval during block production.
- Concurrent per-block-processing and execution payload verification during block processing.
- The `Arc`-ification of `SignedBeaconBlock` during block processing (it's never mutated, so why not?):
- I had to do this to deal with sending blocks into spawned tasks.
- Previously we were cloning the beacon block at least 2 times during each block processing, these clones are either removed or turned into cheaper `Arc` clones.
- We were also `Box`-ing and un-`Box`-ing beacon blocks as they moved throughout the networking crate. This is not a big deal, but it's nice to avoid shifting things between the stack and heap.
- Avoids cloning *all the blocks* in *every chain segment* during sync.
- It also has the potential to clean up our code where we need to pass an *owned* block around so we can send it back in the case of an error (I didn't do much of this, my PR is already big enough 😅)
- The `BeaconChain::HeadSafetyStatus` struct was removed. It was an old relic from prior merge specs.
For motivation for this change, see https://github.com/sigp/lighthouse/pull/3244#issuecomment-1160963273
## Changes to `canonical_head` and `fork_choice`
Previously, the `BeaconChain` had two separate fields:
```
canonical_head: RwLock<Snapshot>,
fork_choice: RwLock<BeaconForkChoice>
```
Now, we have grouped these values under a single struct:
```
canonical_head: CanonicalHead {
cached_head: RwLock<Arc<Snapshot>>,
fork_choice: RwLock<BeaconForkChoice>
}
```
Apart from ergonomics, the only *actual* change here is wrapping the canonical head snapshot in an `Arc`. This means that we no longer need to hold the `cached_head` (`canonical_head`, in old terms) lock when we want to pull some values from it. This was done to avoid deadlock risks by preventing functions from acquiring (and holding) the `cached_head` and `fork_choice` locks simultaneously.
## Breaking Changes
### The `state` (root) field in the `finalized_checkpoint` SSE event
Consider the scenario where epoch `n` is just finalized, but `start_slot(n)` is skipped. There are two state roots we might in the `finalized_checkpoint` SSE event:
1. The state root of the finalized block, which is `get_block(finalized_checkpoint.root).state_root`.
4. The state root at slot of `start_slot(n)`, which would be the state from (1), but "skipped forward" through any skip slots.
Previously, Lighthouse would choose (2). However, we can see that when [Teku generates that event](de2b2801c8/data/beaconrestapi/src/main/java/tech/pegasys/teku/beaconrestapi/handlers/v1/events/EventSubscriptionManager.java (L171-L182)) it uses [`getStateRootFromBlockRoot`](de2b2801c8/data/provider/src/main/java/tech/pegasys/teku/api/ChainDataProvider.java (L336-L341)) which uses (1).
I have switched Lighthouse from (2) to (1). I think it's a somewhat arbitrary choice between the two, where (1) is easier to compute and is consistent with Teku.
## Notes for Reviewers
I've renamed `BeaconChain::fork_choice` to `BeaconChain::recompute_head`. Doing this helped ensure I broke all previous uses of fork choice and I also find it more descriptive. It describes an action and can't be confused with trying to get a reference to the `ForkChoice` struct.
I've changed the ordering of SSE events when a block is received. It used to be `[block, finalized, head]` and now it's `[block, head, finalized]`. It was easier this way and I don't think we were making any promises about SSE event ordering so it's not "breaking".
I've made it so fork choice will run when it's first constructed. I did this because I wanted to have a cached version of the last call to `get_head`. Ensuring `get_head` has been run *at least once* means that the cached values doesn't need to wrapped in an `Option`. This was fairly simple, it just involved passing a `slot` to the constructor so it knows *when* it's being run. When loading a fork choice from the store and a slot clock isn't handy I've just used the `slot` that was saved in the `fork_choice_store`. That seems like it would be a faithful representation of the slot when we saved it.
I added the `genesis_time: u64` to the `BeaconChain`. It's small, constant and nice to have around.
Since we're using FC for the fin/just checkpoints, we no longer get the `0x00..00` roots at genesis. You can see I had to remove a work-around in `ef-tests` here: b56be3bc2. I can't find any reason why this would be an issue, if anything I think it'll be better since the genesis-alias has caught us out a few times (0x00..00 isn't actually a real root). Edit: I did find a case where the `network` expected the 0x00..00 alias and patched it here: 3f26ac3e2.
You'll notice a lot of changes in tests. Generally, tests should be functionally equivalent. Here are the things creating the most diff-noise in tests:
- Changing tests to be `tokio::async` tests.
- Adding `.await` to fork choice, block processing and block production functions.
- Refactor of the `canonical_head` "API" provided by the `BeaconChain`. E.g., `chain.canonical_head.cached_head()` instead of `chain.canonical_head.read()`.
- Wrapping `SignedBeaconBlock` in an `Arc`.
- In the `beacon_chain/tests/block_verification`, we can't use the `lazy_static` `CHAIN_SEGMENT` variable anymore since it's generated with an async function. We just generate it in each test, not so efficient but hopefully insignificant.
I had to disable `rayon` concurrent tests in the `fork_choice` tests. This is because the use of `rayon` and `block_on` was causing a panic.
Co-authored-by: Mac L <mjladson@pm.me>
## Issue Addressed
Upcoming spec change https://github.com/ethereum/consensus-specs/pull/2878
## Proposed Changes
1. Run fork choice at the start of every slot, and wait for this run to complete before proposing a block.
2. As an optimisation, also run fork choice 3/4 of the way through the slot (at 9s), _dequeueing attestations for the next slot_.
3. Remove the fork choice run from the state advance timer that occurred before advancing the state.
## Additional Info
### Block Proposal Accuracy
This change makes us more likely to propose on top of the correct head in the presence of re-orgs with proposer boost in play. The main scenario that this change is designed to address is described in the linked spec issue.
### Attestation Accuracy
This change _also_ makes us more likely to attest to the correct head. Currently in the case of a skipped slot at `slot` we only run fork choice 9s into `slot - 1`. This means the attestations from `slot - 1` aren't taken into consideration, and any boost applied to the block from `slot - 1` is not removed (it should be). In the language of the linked spec issue, this means we are liable to attest to C, even when the majority voting weight has already caused a re-org to B.
### Why remove the call before the state advance?
If we've run fork choice at the start of the slot then it has already dequeued all the attestations from the previous slot, which are the only ones eligible to influence the head in the current slot. Running fork choice again is unnecessary (unless we run it for the next slot and try to pre-empt a re-org, but I don't currently think this is a great idea).
### Performance
Based on Prater testing this adds about 5-25ms of runtime to block proposal times, which are 500-1000ms on average (and spike to 5s+ sometimes due to state handling issues 😢 ). I believe this is a small enough penalty to enable it by default, with the option to disable it via the new flag `--fork-choice-before-proposal-timeout 0`. Upcoming work on block packing and state representation will also reduce block production times in general, while removing the spikes.
### Implementation
Fork choice gets invoked at the start of the slot via the `per_slot_task` function called from the slot timer. It then uses a condition variable to signal to block production that fork choice has been updated. This is a bit funky, but it seems to work. One downside of the timer-based approach is that it doesn't happen automatically in most of the tests. The test added by this PR has to trigger the run manually.
## Proposed Changes
Allow Lighthouse to speculatively create blocks via the `/eth/v1/validators/blocks` endpoint by optionally skipping the RANDAO verification that we introduced in #2740. When `verify_randao=false` is passed as a query parameter the `randao_reveal` is not required to be present, and if present will only be lightly checked (must be a valid BLS sig). If `verify_randao` is omitted it defaults to true and Lighthouse behaves exactly as it did previously, hence this PR is backwards-compatible.
I'd like to get this change into `unstable` pretty soon as I've got 3 projects building on top of it:
- [`blockdreamer`](https://github.com/michaelsproul/blockdreamer), which mocks block production every slot in order to fingerprint clients
- analysis of Lighthouse's block packing _optimality_, which uses `blockdreamer` to extract interesting instances of the attestation packing problem
- analysis of Lighthouse's block packing _performance_ (as in speed) on the `tree-states` branch
## Additional Info
Having tested `blockdreamer` with Prysm, Nimbus and Teku I noticed that none of them verify the randao signature on `/eth/v1/validator/blocks`. I plan to open a PR to the `beacon-APIs` repo anyway so that this parameter can be standardised in case the other clients add RANDAO verification by default in future.
## Issue Addressed
Resolves#2936
## Proposed Changes
Adds functionality for calling [`validator/prepare_beacon_proposer`](https://ethereum.github.io/beacon-APIs/?urls.primaryName=dev#/Validator/prepareBeaconProposer) in advance.
There is a `BeaconChain::prepare_beacon_proposer` method which, which called, computes the proposer for the next slot. If that proposer has been registered via the `validator/prepare_beacon_proposer` API method, then the `beacon_chain.execution_layer` will be provided the `PayloadAttributes` for us in all future forkchoiceUpdated calls. An artificial forkchoiceUpdated call will be created 4s before each slot, when the head updates and when a validator updates their information.
Additionally, I added strict ordering for calls from the `BeaconChain` to the `ExecutionLayer`. I'm not certain the `ExecutionLayer` will always maintain this ordering, but it's a good start to have consistency from the `BeaconChain`. There are some deadlock opportunities introduced, they are documented in the code.
## Additional Info
- ~~Blocked on #2837~~
Co-authored-by: realbigsean <seananderson33@GMAIL.com>
## Issue Addressed
NA
## Proposed Changes
Adds the functionality to allow blocks to be validated/invalidated after their import as per the [optimistic sync spec](https://github.com/ethereum/consensus-specs/blob/dev/sync/optimistic.md#how-to-optimistically-import-blocks). This means:
- Updating `ProtoArray` to allow flipping the `execution_status` of ancestors/descendants based on payload validity updates.
- Creating separation between `execution_layer` and the `beacon_chain` by creating a `PayloadStatus` struct.
- Refactoring how the `execution_layer` selects a `PayloadStatus` from the multiple statuses returned from multiple EEs.
- Adding testing framework for optimistic imports.
- Add `ExecutionBlockHash(Hash256)` new-type struct to avoid confusion between *beacon block roots* and *execution payload hashes*.
- Add `merge` to [`FORKS`](c3a793fd73/Makefile (L17)) in the `Makefile` to ensure we test the beacon chain with merge settings.
- Fix some tests here that were failing due to a missing execution layer.
## TODO
- [ ] Balance tests
Co-authored-by: Mark Mackey <mark@sigmaprime.io>
## Issue Addressed
This PR fixes the unnecessary `WARN Single block lookup failed` messages described here:
https://github.com/sigp/lighthouse/pull/2866#issuecomment-1008442640
## Proposed Changes
Add a new cache to the `BeaconChain` that tracks the block roots of blocks from before finalization. These could be blocks from the canonical chain (which might need to be read from disk), or old pre-finalization blocks that have been forked out.
The cache also stores a set of block roots for in-progress single block lookups, which duplicates some of the information from sync's `single_block_lookups` hashmap:
a836e180f9/beacon_node/network/src/sync/manager.rs (L192-L196)
On a live node you can confirm that the cache is working by grepping logs for the message: `Rejected attestation to finalized block`.
## Issue Addressed
NA
## Proposed Changes
Introduces a cache to attestation to produce atop blocks which will become the head, but are not fully imported (e.g., not inserted into the database).
Whilst attesting to a block before it's imported is rather easy, if we're going to produce that attestation then we also need to be able to:
1. Verify that attestation.
1. Respond to RPC requests for the `beacon_block_root`.
Attestation verification (1) is *partially* covered. Since we prime the shuffling cache before we insert the block into the early attester cache, we should be fine for all typical use-cases. However, it is possible that the cache is washed out before we've managed to insert the state into the database and then attestation verification will fail with a "missing beacon state"-type error.
Providing the block via RPC (2) is also partially covered, since we'll check the database *and* the early attester cache when responding a blocks-by-root request. However, we'll still omit the block from blocks-by-range requests (until the block lands in the DB). I *think* this is fine, since there's no guarantee that we return all blocks for those responses.
Another important consideration is whether or not the *parent* of the early attester block is available in the databse. If it were not, we might fail to respond to blocks-by-root request that are iterating backwards to collect a chain of blocks. I argue that *we will always have the parent of the early attester block in the database.* This is because we are holding the fork-choice write-lock when inserting the block into the early attester cache and we do not drop that until the block is in the database.
