## Issue Addressed
https://github.com/ethereum/beacon-APIs/pull/222
## Proposed Changes
Update Lighthouse's randao verification API to match the `beacon-APIs` spec. We implemented the API before spec stabilisation, and it changed slightly in the course of review.
Rather than a flag `verify_randao` taking a boolean value, the new API uses a `skip_randao_verification` flag which takes no argument. The new spec also requires the randao reveal to be present and equal to the point-at-infinity when `skip_randao_verification` is set.
I've also updated the `POST /lighthouse/analysis/block_rewards` API to take blinded blocks as input, as the execution payload is irrelevant and we may want to assess blocks produced by builders.
## Additional Info
This is technically a breaking change, but seeing as I suspect I'm the only one using these parameters/APIs, I think we're OK to include this in a patch release.
## Issue Addressed
NA
## Proposed Changes
I've noticed that our block hashing times increase significantly after the merge. I did some flamegraph-ing and noticed that we're allocating a `Vec` for each byte of each execution payload transaction. This seems like unnecessary work and a bit of a fragmentation risk.
This PR switches to `SmallVec<[u8; 32]>` for the packed encoding of `TreeHash`. I believe this is a nice simple optimisation with no downside.
### Benchmarking
These numbers were computed using #3580 on my desktop (i7 hex-core). You can see a bit of noise in the numbers, that's probably just my computer doing other things. Generally I found this change takes the time from 10-11ms to 8-9ms. I can also see all the allocations disappear from flamegraph.
This is the block being benchmarked: https://beaconcha.in/slot/4704236
#### Before
```
[2022-09-15T21:44:19Z INFO lcli::block_root] Run 980: 10.553003ms
[2022-09-15T21:44:19Z INFO lcli::block_root] Run 981: 10.563737ms
[2022-09-15T21:44:19Z INFO lcli::block_root] Run 982: 10.646352ms
[2022-09-15T21:44:19Z INFO lcli::block_root] Run 983: 10.628532ms
[2022-09-15T21:44:19Z INFO lcli::block_root] Run 984: 10.552112ms
[2022-09-15T21:44:19Z INFO lcli::block_root] Run 985: 10.587778ms
[2022-09-15T21:44:19Z INFO lcli::block_root] Run 986: 10.640526ms
[2022-09-15T21:44:19Z INFO lcli::block_root] Run 987: 10.587243ms
[2022-09-15T21:44:19Z INFO lcli::block_root] Run 988: 10.554748ms
[2022-09-15T21:44:19Z INFO lcli::block_root] Run 989: 10.551111ms
[2022-09-15T21:44:19Z INFO lcli::block_root] Run 990: 11.559031ms
[2022-09-15T21:44:19Z INFO lcli::block_root] Run 991: 11.944827ms
[2022-09-15T21:44:19Z INFO lcli::block_root] Run 992: 10.554308ms
[2022-09-15T21:44:19Z INFO lcli::block_root] Run 993: 11.043397ms
[2022-09-15T21:44:19Z INFO lcli::block_root] Run 994: 11.043315ms
[2022-09-15T21:44:19Z INFO lcli::block_root] Run 995: 11.207711ms
[2022-09-15T21:44:19Z INFO lcli::block_root] Run 996: 11.056246ms
[2022-09-15T21:44:19Z INFO lcli::block_root] Run 997: 11.049706ms
[2022-09-15T21:44:19Z INFO lcli::block_root] Run 998: 11.432449ms
[2022-09-15T21:44:19Z INFO lcli::block_root] Run 999: 11.149617ms
```
#### After
```
[2022-09-15T21:41:49Z INFO lcli::block_root] Run 980: 14.011653ms
[2022-09-15T21:41:49Z INFO lcli::block_root] Run 981: 8.925314ms
[2022-09-15T21:41:49Z INFO lcli::block_root] Run 982: 8.849563ms
[2022-09-15T21:41:49Z INFO lcli::block_root] Run 983: 8.893689ms
[2022-09-15T21:41:49Z INFO lcli::block_root] Run 984: 8.902964ms
[2022-09-15T21:41:49Z INFO lcli::block_root] Run 985: 8.942067ms
[2022-09-15T21:41:49Z INFO lcli::block_root] Run 986: 8.907088ms
[2022-09-15T21:41:49Z INFO lcli::block_root] Run 987: 9.346101ms
[2022-09-15T21:41:49Z INFO lcli::block_root] Run 988: 8.96142ms
[2022-09-15T21:41:49Z INFO lcli::block_root] Run 989: 9.366437ms
[2022-09-15T21:41:49Z INFO lcli::block_root] Run 990: 9.809334ms
[2022-09-15T21:41:49Z INFO lcli::block_root] Run 991: 9.541561ms
[2022-09-15T21:41:49Z INFO lcli::block_root] Run 992: 11.143518ms
[2022-09-15T21:41:49Z INFO lcli::block_root] Run 993: 10.821181ms
[2022-09-15T21:41:49Z INFO lcli::block_root] Run 994: 9.855973ms
[2022-09-15T21:41:49Z INFO lcli::block_root] Run 995: 10.941006ms
[2022-09-15T21:41:49Z INFO lcli::block_root] Run 996: 9.596155ms
[2022-09-15T21:41:49Z INFO lcli::block_root] Run 997: 9.121739ms
[2022-09-15T21:41:49Z INFO lcli::block_root] Run 998: 9.090019ms
[2022-09-15T21:41:49Z INFO lcli::block_root] Run 999: 9.071885ms
```
## Additional Info
Please provide any additional information. For example, future considerations
or information useful for reviewers.
## Issue Addressed
NA
## Proposed Changes
I have observed scenarios on Goerli where Lighthouse was receiving attestations which reference the same, un-cached shuffling on multiple threads at the same time. Lighthouse was then loading the same state from database and determining the shuffling on multiple threads at the same time. This is unnecessary load on the disk and RAM.
This PR modifies the shuffling cache so that each entry can be either:
- A committee
- A promise for a committee (i.e., a `crossbeam_channel::Receiver`)
Now, in the scenario where we have thread A and thread B simultaneously requesting the same un-cached shuffling, we will have the following:
1. Thread A will take the write-lock on the shuffling cache, find that there's no cached committee and then create a "promise" (a `crossbeam_channel::Sender`) for a committee before dropping the write-lock.
1. Thread B will then be allowed to take the write-lock for the shuffling cache and find the promise created by thread A. It will block the current thread waiting for thread A to fulfill that promise.
1. Thread A will load the state from disk, obtain the shuffling, send it down the channel, insert the entry into the cache and then continue to verify the attestation.
1. Thread B will then receive the shuffling from the receiver, be un-blocked and then continue to verify the attestation.
In the case where thread A fails to generate the shuffling and drops the sender, the next time that specific shuffling is requested we will detect that the channel is disconnected and return a `None` entry for that shuffling. This will cause the shuffling to be re-calculated.
## Additional Info
NA
## Proposed Changes
This PR has two aims: to speed up attestation packing in the op pool, and to fix bugs in the verification of attester slashings, proposer slashings and voluntary exits. The changes are bundled into a single database schema upgrade (v12).
Attestation packing is sped up by removing several inefficiencies:
- No more recalculation of `attesting_indices` during packing.
- No (unnecessary) examination of the `ParticipationFlags`: a bitfield suffices. See `RewardCache`.
- No re-checking of attestation validity during packing: the `AttestationMap` provides attestations which are "correct by construction" (I have checked this using Hydra).
- No SSZ re-serialization for the clunky `AttestationId` type (it can be removed in a future release).
So far the speed-up seems to be roughly 2-10x, from 500ms down to 50-100ms.
Verification of attester slashings, proposer slashings and voluntary exits is fixed by:
- Tracking the `ForkVersion`s that were used to verify each message inside the `SigVerifiedOp`. This allows us to quickly re-verify that they match the head state's opinion of what the `ForkVersion` should be at the epoch(s) relevant to the message.
- Storing the `SigVerifiedOp` on disk rather than the raw operation. This allows us to continue track the fork versions after a reboot.
This is mostly contained in this commit 52bb1840ae5c4356a8fc3a51e5df23ed65ed2c7f.
## Additional Info
The schema upgrade uses the justified state to re-verify attestations and compute `attesting_indices` for them. It will drop any attestations that fail to verify, by the logic that attestations are most valuable in the few slots after they're observed, and are probably stale and useless by the time a node restarts. Exits and proposer slashings and similarly re-verified to obtain `SigVerifiedOp`s.
This PR contains a runtime killswitch `--paranoid-block-proposal` which opts out of all the optimisations in favour of closely verifying every included message. Although I'm quite sure that the optimisations are correct this flag could be useful in the event of an unforeseen emergency.
Finally, you might notice that the `RewardCache` appears quite useless in its current form because it is only updated on the hot-path immediately before proposal. My hope is that in future we can shift calls to `RewardCache::update` into the background, e.g. while performing the state advance. It is also forward-looking to `tree-states` compatibility, where iterating and indexing `state.{previous,current}_epoch_participation` is expensive and needs to be minimised.
## Issue Addressed
Resolves#3388Resolves#2638
## Proposed Changes
- Return the `BellatrixPreset` on `/eth/v1/config/spec` by default.
- Allow users to opt out of this by providing `--http-spec-fork=altair` (unless there's a Bellatrix fork epoch set).
- Add the Altair constants from #2638 and make serving the constants non-optional (the `http-disable-legacy-spec` flag is deprecated).
- Modify the VC to only read the `Config` and not to log extra fields. This prevents it from having to muck around parsing the `ConfigAndPreset` fields it doesn't need.
## Additional Info
This change is backwards-compatible for the VC and the BN, but is marked as a breaking change for the removal of `--http-disable-legacy-spec`.
I tried making `Config` a `superstruct` too, but getting the automatic decoding to work was a huge pain and was going to require a lot of hacks, so I gave up in favour of keeping the default-based approach we have now.
## 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
Resolves#3267Resolves#3156
## Proposed Changes
- Move the log for fee recipient checks from proposer cache insertion into block proposal so we are directly checking what we get from the EE
- Only log when there is a discrepancy with the local EE, not when using the builder API. In the `builder-api` branch there is an `info` log when there is a discrepancy, I think it is more likely there will be a difference in fee recipient with the builder api because proposer payments might be made via a transaction in the block. Not really sure what patterns will become commong.
- Upgrade the log from a `warn` to an `error` - not actually sure which we want, but I think this is worth an error because the local EE with default transaction ordering I think should pretty much always use the provided fee recipient
- add a `strict-fee-recipient` flag to the VC so we only sign blocks with matching fee recipients. Falls back from the builder API to the local API if there is a discrepancy .
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/3270
## Proposed Changes
Optimize the calculation of historic beacon committees in the HTTP API.
This is achieved by allowing committee caches to be constructed for historic epochs, and constructing these committee caches on the fly in the API. This is much faster than reconstructing the state at the requested epoch, which usually takes upwards of 20s, and sometimes minutes with SPRP=8192. The depth of the `randao_mixes` array allows us to look back 64K epochs/0.8 years from a single state, which is pretty awesome!
We always use the `state_id` provided by the caller, but will return a nice 400 error if the epoch requested is out of range for the state requested, e.g.
```bash
# Prater
curl "http://localhost:5052/eth/v1/beacon/states/3170304/committees?epoch=33538"
```
```json
{"code":400,"message":"BAD_REQUEST: epoch out of bounds, try state at slot 1081344","stacktraces":[]}
```
Queries will be fastest when aligned to `slot % SPRP == 0`, so the hint suggests a slot that is 0 mod 8192.
## 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
NA
## Proposed Changes
This is a fairly simple micro-optimization to avoid using `Vec::grow`. I don't believe this will have a substantial effect on block processing times, however it was showing up in flamegraphs. I think it's worth making this change for general memory-hygiene.
## Additional Info
NA
## Issue Addressed
This PR is a subset of the changes in #3134. Unstable will still not function correctly with the new builder spec once this is merged, #3134 should be used on testnets
## Proposed Changes
- Removes redundancy in "builders" (servers implementing the builder spec)
- Renames `payload-builder` flag to `builder`
- Moves from old builder RPC API to new HTTP API, but does not implement the validator registration API (implemented in https://github.com/sigp/lighthouse/pull/3194)
Co-authored-by: sean <seananderson33@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: realbigsean <sean@sigmaprime.io>
## Issue Addressed
Lays the groundwork for builder API changes by implementing the beacon-API's new `register_validator` endpoint
## Proposed Changes
- Add a routine in the VC that runs on startup (re-try until success), once per epoch or whenever `suggested_fee_recipient` is updated, signing `ValidatorRegistrationData` and sending it to the BN.
- TODO: `gas_limit` config options https://github.com/ethereum/builder-specs/issues/17
- BN only sends VC registration data to builders on demand, but VC registration data *does update* the BN's prepare proposer cache and send an updated fcU to a local EE. This is necessary for fee recipient consistency between the blinded and full block flow in the event of fallback. Having the BN only send registration data to builders on demand gives feedback directly to the VC about relay status. Also, since the BN has no ability to sign these messages anyways (so couldn't refresh them if it wanted), and validator registration is independent of the BN head, I think this approach makes sense.
- Adds upcoming consensus spec changes for this PR https://github.com/ethereum/consensus-specs/pull/2884
- I initially applied the bit mask based on a configured application domain.. but I ended up just hard coding it here instead because that's how it's spec'd in the builder repo.
- Should application mask appear in the api?
Co-authored-by: realbigsean <sean@sigmaprime.io>
## Issue Addressed
NA
## Proposed Changes
- Uses a `Vec` in `SingleEpochParticipationCache` rather than `HashMap` to speed up processing times at the cost of memory usage.
- Cache the result of `integer_sqrt` rather than recomputing for each validator.
- Cache `state.previous_epoch` rather than recomputing it for each validator.
### Benchmarks
Benchmarks on a recent mainnet state using #3252 to get timing.
#### Without this PR
```
lcli skip-slots --state-path /tmp/state-0x3cdc.ssz --partial-state-advance --slots 32 --state-root 0x3cdc33cd02713d8d6cc33a6dbe2d3a5bf9af1d357de0d175a403496486ff845e --runs 10
[2022-06-09T08:21:02Z INFO lcli::skip_slots] Using mainnet spec
[2022-06-09T08:21:02Z INFO lcli::skip_slots] Advancing 32 slots
[2022-06-09T08:21:02Z INFO lcli::skip_slots] Doing 10 runs
[2022-06-09T08:21:02Z INFO lcli::skip_slots] State path: "/tmp/state-0x3cdc.ssz"
SSZ decoding /tmp/state-0x3cdc.ssz: 43ms
[2022-06-09T08:21:03Z INFO lcli::skip_slots] Run 0: 245.718794ms
[2022-06-09T08:21:03Z INFO lcli::skip_slots] Run 1: 245.364782ms
[2022-06-09T08:21:03Z INFO lcli::skip_slots] Run 2: 255.866179ms
[2022-06-09T08:21:04Z INFO lcli::skip_slots] Run 3: 243.838909ms
[2022-06-09T08:21:04Z INFO lcli::skip_slots] Run 4: 250.431425ms
[2022-06-09T08:21:04Z INFO lcli::skip_slots] Run 5: 248.68765ms
[2022-06-09T08:21:04Z INFO lcli::skip_slots] Run 6: 262.051113ms
[2022-06-09T08:21:05Z INFO lcli::skip_slots] Run 7: 264.293967ms
[2022-06-09T08:21:05Z INFO lcli::skip_slots] Run 8: 293.202007ms
[2022-06-09T08:21:05Z INFO lcli::skip_slots] Run 9: 264.552017ms
```
#### With this PR:
```
lcli skip-slots --state-path /tmp/state-0x3cdc.ssz --partial-state-advance --slots 32 --state-root 0x3cdc33cd02713d8d6cc33a6dbe2d3a5bf9af1d357de0d175a403496486ff845e --runs 10
[2022-06-09T08:57:59Z INFO lcli::skip_slots] Run 0: 73.898678ms
[2022-06-09T08:57:59Z INFO lcli::skip_slots] Run 1: 75.536978ms
[2022-06-09T08:57:59Z INFO lcli::skip_slots] Run 2: 75.176104ms
[2022-06-09T08:57:59Z INFO lcli::skip_slots] Run 3: 76.460828ms
[2022-06-09T08:57:59Z INFO lcli::skip_slots] Run 4: 75.904195ms
[2022-06-09T08:58:00Z INFO lcli::skip_slots] Run 5: 75.53077ms
[2022-06-09T08:58:00Z INFO lcli::skip_slots] Run 6: 74.745572ms
[2022-06-09T08:58:00Z INFO lcli::skip_slots] Run 7: 75.823489ms
[2022-06-09T08:58:00Z INFO lcli::skip_slots] Run 8: 74.892055ms
[2022-06-09T08:58:00Z INFO lcli::skip_slots] Run 9: 76.333569ms
```
## Additional Info
NA
## Proposed Changes
Reduce post-merge disk usage by not storing finalized execution payloads in Lighthouse's database.
⚠️ **This is achieved in a backwards-incompatible way for networks that have already merged** ⚠️. Kiln users and shadow fork enjoyers will be unable to downgrade after running the code from this PR. The upgrade migration may take several minutes to run, and can't be aborted after it begins.
The main changes are:
- New column in the database called `ExecPayload`, keyed by beacon block root.
- The `BeaconBlock` column now stores blinded blocks only.
- Lots of places that previously used full blocks now use blinded blocks, e.g. analytics APIs, block replay in the DB, etc.
- On finalization:
- `prune_abanonded_forks` deletes non-canonical payloads whilst deleting non-canonical blocks.
- `migrate_db` deletes finalized canonical payloads whilst deleting finalized states.
- Conversions between blinded and full blocks are implemented in a compositional way, duplicating some work from Sean's PR #3134.
- The execution layer has a new `get_payload_by_block_hash` method that reconstructs a payload using the EE's `eth_getBlockByHash` call.
- I've tested manually that it works on Kiln, using Geth and Nethermind.
- This isn't necessarily the most efficient method, and new engine APIs are being discussed to improve this: https://github.com/ethereum/execution-apis/pull/146.
- We're depending on the `ethers` master branch, due to lots of recent changes. We're also using a workaround for https://github.com/gakonst/ethers-rs/issues/1134.
- Payload reconstruction is used in the HTTP API via `BeaconChain::get_block`, which is now `async`. Due to the `async` fn, the `blocking_json` wrapper has been removed.
- Payload reconstruction is used in network RPC to serve blocks-by-{root,range} responses. Here the `async` adjustment is messier, although I think I've managed to come up with a reasonable compromise: the handlers take the `SendOnDrop` by value so that they can drop it on _task completion_ (after the `fn` returns). Still, this is introducing disk reads onto core executor threads, which may have a negative performance impact (thoughts appreciated).
## Additional Info
- [x] For performance it would be great to remove the cloning of full blocks when converting them to blinded blocks to write to disk. I'm going to experiment with a `put_block` API that takes the block by value, breaks it into a blinded block and a payload, stores the blinded block, and then re-assembles the full block for the caller.
- [x] We should measure the latency of blocks-by-root and blocks-by-range responses.
- [x] We should add integration tests that stress the payload reconstruction (basic tests done, issue for more extensive tests: https://github.com/sigp/lighthouse/issues/3159)
- [x] We should (manually) test the schema v9 migration from several prior versions, particularly as blocks have changed on disk and some migrations rely on being able to load blocks.
Co-authored-by: Paul Hauner <paul@paulhauner.com>
## Proposed Changes
Mitigate the fork choice attacks described in [_Three Attacks on Proof-of-Stake Ethereum_](https://arxiv.org/abs/2110.10086) by enabling proposer boost @ 70% on mainnet.
Proposer boost has been running with stability on Prater for a few months now, and is safe to roll out gradually on mainnet. I'll argue that the financial impact of rolling out gradually is also minimal.
Consider how a proposer-boosted validator handles two types of re-orgs:
## Ex ante re-org (from the paper)
In the mitigated attack, a malicious proposer releases their block at slot `n + 1` late so that it re-orgs the block at the slot _after_ them (at slot `n + 2`). Non-boosting validators will follow this re-org and vote for block `n + 1` in slot `n + 2`. Boosted validators will vote for `n + 2`. If the boosting validators are outnumbered, there'll be a re-org to the malicious block from `n + 1` and validators applying the boost will have their slot `n + 2` attestations miss head (and target on an epoch boundary). Note that all the attesters from slot `n + 1` are doomed to lose their head vote rewards, but this is the same regardless of boosting.
Therefore, Lighthouse nodes stand to miss slightly more head votes than other nodes if they are in the minority while applying the proposer boost. Once the proposer boost nodes gain a majority, this trend reverses.
## Ex post re-org (using the boost)
The other type of re-org is an ex post re-org using the strategy described here: https://github.com/sigp/lighthouse/pull/2860. With this strategy, boosted nodes will follow the attempted re-org and again lose a head vote if the re-org is unsuccessful. Once boosting is widely adopted, the re-orgs will succeed and the non-boosting validators will lose out.
I don't think there are (m)any validators applying this strategy, because it is irrational to attempt it before boosting is widely adopted. Therefore I think we can safely ignore this possibility.
## Risk Assessment
From observing re-orgs on mainnet I don't think ex ante re-orgs are very common. I've observed around 1 per day for the last month on my node (see: https://gist.github.com/michaelsproul/3b2142fa8fe0ff767c16553f96959e8c), compared to 2.5 ex post re-orgs per day.
Given one extra slot per day where attesting will cause a missed head vote, each individual validator has a 1/32 chance of being assigned to that slot. So we have an increase of 1/32 missed head votes per validator per day in expectation. Given that we currently see ~7 head vote misses per validator per day due to late/missing blocks (and re-orgs), this represents only a (1/32)/7 = 0.45% increase in missed head votes in expectation. I believe this is so small that we shouldn't worry about it. Particularly as getting proposer boost deployed is good for network health and may enable us to drive down the number of late blocks over time (which will decrease head vote misses).
## TL;DR
Enable proposer boost now and release ASAP, as financial downside is a 0.45% increase in missed head votes until widespread adoption.
## Issue Addressed
MEV boost compatibility
## Proposed Changes
See #2987
## Additional Info
This is blocked on the stabilization of a couple specs, [here](https://github.com/ethereum/beacon-APIs/pull/194) and [here](https://github.com/flashbots/mev-boost/pull/20).
Additional TODO's and outstanding questions
- [ ] MEV boost JWT Auth
- [ ] Will `builder_proposeBlindedBlock` return the revealed payload for the BN to propogate
- [ ] Should we remove `private-tx-proposals` flag and communicate BN <> VC with blinded blocks by default once these endpoints enter the beacon-API's repo? This simplifies merge transition logic.
Co-authored-by: realbigsean <seananderson33@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: realbigsean <sean@sigmaprime.io>
## Issue Addressed
#3073
## Proposed Changes
Add around `SAFE_SLOTS_TO_IMPORT_OPTIMISTICALLY` in the API
Co-authored-by: realbigsean <sean@sigmaprime.io>
## Issue Addressed
As discussed on last-night's consensus call, the testnets next week will target the [Kiln Spec v2](https://hackmd.io/@n0ble/kiln-spec).
Presently, we support Kiln V1. V2 is backwards compatible, except for renaming `random` to `prev_randao` in:
- https://github.com/ethereum/execution-apis/pull/180
- https://github.com/ethereum/consensus-specs/pull/2835
With this PR we'll no longer be compatible with the existing Kintsugi and Kiln testnets, however we'll be ready for the testnets next week. I raised this breaking change in the call last night, we are all keen to move forward and break things.
We now target the [`merge-kiln-v2`](https://github.com/MariusVanDerWijden/go-ethereum/tree/merge-kiln-v2) branch for interop with Geth. This required adding the `--http.aauthport` to the tester to avoid a port conflict at startup.
### Changes to exec integration tests
There's some change in the `merge-kiln-v2` version of Geth that means it can't compile on a vanilla Github runner. Bumping the `go` version on the runner solved this issue.
Whilst addressing this, I refactored the `testing/execution_integration` crate to be a *binary* rather than a *library* with tests. This means that we don't need to run the `build.rs` and build Geth whenever someone runs `make lint` or `make test-release`. This is nice for everyday users, but it's also nice for CI so that we can have a specific runner for these tests and we don't need to ensure *all* runners support everything required to build all execution clients.
## More Info
- [x] ~~EF tests are failing since the rename has broken some tests that reference the old field name. I have been told there will be new tests released in the coming days (25/02/22 or 26/02/22).~~
