135 lines
6.5 KiB
Markdown
135 lines
6.5 KiB
Markdown
# Lighthouse: an Ethereum Serenity client
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[](https://travis-ci.org/sigp/lighthouse) [](https://gitter.im/sigp/lighthouse?utm_source=badge&utm_medium=badge&utm_campaign=pr-badge)
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A work-in-progress, open-source implementation of the Serenity Beacon
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Chain, maintained by Sigma Prime.
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The "Serenity" project is also known as "Ethereum 2.0" or "Shasper".
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## Project Structure
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The Lighthouse project is managed across four Github repositories:
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- [sigp/lighthouse](https://github.com/sigp/lighthouse) (this repo): The
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"integration" repository which provides:
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- Project-wide documentation
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- A landing-page for users and contributors.
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- In the future, various other integration tests and orchestration suites.
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- [sigp/lighthouse-libs](https://github.com/sigp/lighthouse-libs): Contains
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Rust crates common to the entire Lighthouse project, including:
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- Pure specification logic (e.g., state transitions, etc)
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- SSZ (SimpleSerialize)
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- BLS Signature libraries, and more.
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- [sigp/lighthouse-beacon](https://github.com/sigp/lighthouse-beacon): The
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beacon node binary, responsible for connection to peers across the
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network and maintaining a view of the Beacon Chain.
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- [sigp/lighthouse-validator](https://github.com/sigp/lighthouse-validator):
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The validator client binary, which connects to a beacon node and fulfils
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the duties of a staked validator (producing and attesting to blocks).
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## Contributing
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We welcome new contributors and greatly appreciate the efforts from existing
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contributors.
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If you'd like to contribute to development on Lighthouse, we recommend checking
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for [issues on the lighthouse-libs
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repo](https://github.com/sigp/lighthouse-libs/issues) first, then checking the
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other repositories.
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If you don't find anything there, please reach out on the
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[gitter](https://gitter.im/sigp/lighthouse) channel.
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Additional resources:
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- [ONBOARDING.md](docs/ONBOARDING.md): General on-boarding info,
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including style-guide.
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- [LIGHTHOUSE.md](docs/LIGHTHOUSE.md): Project goals and ethos.
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- [RUNNING.md](docs/RUNNING.md): Step-by-step on getting the code running.
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- [SERENITY.md](docs/SERENITY.md): Introduction to Ethereum Serenity.
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## Project Summary
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Lighthouse is an open-source Ethereum Serenity client that is currently under
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development. Designed as a Serenity-only client, Lighthouse will not
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re-implement the existing proof-of-work protocol. Maintaining a forward-focus
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on Ethereum Serenity ensures that Lighthouse avoids reproducing the high-quality
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work already undertaken by existing projects. As such, Lighthouse will connect
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to existing clients, such as
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[Geth](https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum) or
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[Parity-Ethereum](https://github.com/paritytech/parity-ethereum), via RPC to enable
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present-Ethereum functionality.
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### Components
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The following list describes some of the components actively under development
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by the team:
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- **BLS cryptography**: Lighthouse presently use the [Apache
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Milagro](https://milagro.apache.org/) cryptography library to create and
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verify BLS aggregate signatures. BLS signatures are core to Serenity as they
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allow the signatures of many validators to be compressed into a constant 96
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bytes and efficiently verified. The Lighthouse project is presently
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maintaining its own [BLS aggregates
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library](https://github.com/sigp/signature-schemes), gratefully forked from
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[@lovesh](https://github.com/lovesh).
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- **DoS-resistant block pre-processing**: Processing blocks in proof-of-stake
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is more resource intensive than proof-of-work. As such, clients need to
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ensure that bad blocks can be rejected as efficiently as possible. At
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present, blocks having 10 million ETH staked can be processed in 0.006
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seconds, and invalid blocks are rejected even more quickly. See
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[issue #103](https://github.com/ethereum/beacon_chain/issues/103) on
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[ethereum/beacon_chain](https://github.com/ethereum/beacon_chain).
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- **P2P networking**: Serenity will likely use the [libp2p
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framework](https://libp2p.io/). Lighthouse is working alongside
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[Parity](https://www.parity.io/) to ensure
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[libp2p-rust](https://github.com/libp2p/rust-libp2p) is fit-for-purpose.
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- **Validator duties** : The project involves development of "validator
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services" for users who wish to stake ETH. To fulfill their duties,
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validators require a consistent view of the chain and the ability to vote
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upon blocks from both shard and beacon chains.
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- **New serialization formats**: Lighthouse is working alongside researchers
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from the Ethereum Foundation to develop *simpleserialize* (SSZ), a
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purpose-built serialization format for sending information across a network.
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Check out the [SSZ
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implementation](https://github.com/sigp/lighthouse-libs/tree/master/ssz)
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and this
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[research](https://github.com/sigp/serialization_sandbox/blob/report/report/serialization_report.md)
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on serialization formats for more information.
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- **Fork-choice**: The current fork choice rule is
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[*LMD Ghost*](https://vitalik.ca/general/2018/12/05/cbc_casper.html#lmd-ghost),
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which effectively takes the latest messages and forms the canonical chain using
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the [GHOST](https://eprint.iacr.org/2013/881.pdf) mechanism.
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- **Efficient state transition logic**: State transition logic governs
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updates to the validator set as validators log in/out, penalizes/rewards
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validators, rotates validators across shards, and implements other core tasks.
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- **Fuzzing and testing environments**: Implementation of lab environments with
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continuous integration (CI) workflows, providing automated security analysis.
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In addition to these components we are also working on database schemas, RPC
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frameworks, specification development, database optimizations (e.g.,
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bloom-filters), and tons of other interesting stuff (at least we think so).
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## Contact
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The best place for discussion is the [sigp/lighthouse gitter](https://gitter.im/sigp/lighthouse).
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Ping @paulhauner or @AgeManning to get the quickest response.
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If you'd like some background on Sigma Prime, please see the [Lighthouse Update
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\#00](https://lighthouse.sigmaprime.io/update-00.html) blog post or the
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[company website](https://sigmaprime.io).
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# Donations
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We accept donations at the following Ethereum address. All donations go towards
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funding development of Ethereum 2.0.
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[`0x25c4a76E7d118705e7Ea2e9b7d8C59930d8aCD3b`](https://etherscan.io/address/0x25c4a76e7d118705e7ea2e9b7d8c59930d8acd3b)
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Alternatively, you can contribute via [Gitcoin Grant](https://gitcoin.co/grants/25/lighthouse-ethereum-20-client).
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We appreciate all contributions to the project.
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