eth2 quick update no. 2

Eth2 Quick Update No. 2: Simplifying Phase 0 and Refining Phase 1

The Ethereum 2.0 (eth2) development team has been working tirelessly to bring about a new era of scalability, security, and usability to the Ethereum network. In this second installment of the eth2 quick update, we'll delve into the latest developments, including the release of v0.9.0, also known as Tonkatsu, and the ongoing refinement of Phase 1.

Tonkatsu Release: Simplifying Phase 0

As promised on the latest eth2 call, the development team has pushed forward with the release of v0.9.0, codenamed Tonkatsu. This release is a significant step towards simplifying Phase 0, the initial phase of the eth2 rollout. The goal of Tonkatsu is to remove any opinionated aspects of Phase 0 that are tied to the modified sharding proposal, allowing Phase 0 development to continue unimpeded.

The release notes for Tonkatsu provide a detailed overview of the changes and improvements made in this release. Some of the key highlights include:

Simplification of Phase 0 to remove opinionated aspects tied to the modified sharding proposal
Improved test vectors and state transition logic
Introduction of a simple attestation aggregation strategy

The Tonkatsu release is a significant milestone in the eth2 development process, and it sets the stage for further refinement and improvement.

Ongoing Phase 1 Redesign

As mentioned in the previous eth2 quick update, the development team is working on a new and simpler direction for Phase 1. The new sharding proposal facilitates "crosslinks" for all shards at each slot, drastically simplifying communication between shards and resulting in a much better and simpler developer/user experience come Phase 2.

The previous cross-shard communication design is shown below:

  Shard 1 -> Shard 2
  Shard 2 -> Shard 3
  Shard 3 -> Shard 1

The new shard design proposal is as follows:

  Shard 1 -> Shard 2 -> Shard 3

This new design allows for more efficient communication between shards and reduces the complexity of the system.

To support this new proposal, the total shard count to start must be reduced from 1024 to the new estimate of 64, with the intention to scale up the number of shards over time (~10 years) as standard resources available to consumer laptops increases.

The primary reasons for the requisite reduction in total shards are:

Each shard induces an attestation load on the network and beacon chain at each slot rather than at each epoch
Each committee must be of a minimum safe number of validators. If there are too many committees per epoch due to high shard count, then there couldn't possibly be enough 32-ETH validators to safely allocate enough to each committee

To achieve a similar scalability as the previous proposal, target shard block sizes are being increased 8x, from 16kB to 128kB. This provides the system with greater than 1 MB/s of data availability which synergizes well with promising L2 schemes such as ZKRollup and OVM. The network safety of these larger shard block sizes are justified by recent experimental research done on the existing Ethereum network.

Quiet, yet Effective Client Development

Eth2 clients continue to quietly develop, with a focus on handling deposits from eth1, generally hardening clients for production, optimization of state transition and BLS implementations, cross-client fuzzing, networking monitoring tooling, and more! Larger single client testnets are in the works as well as continued cross-client experimentation.

Now that v0.9.0 has been released, clients are updating their state transition logic to pass the new test vectors and are introducing the simple attestation aggregation strategy.

What This Means for Ethereum Developers and Users

The ongoing refinement of Phase 1 and the release of v0.9.0, Tonkatsu, are significant steps towards bringing about a new era of scalability, security, and usability to the Ethereum network. Developers can expect to see improved test vectors and state transition logic, as well as a simpler attestation aggregation strategy.

Users can expect to see a more efficient and scalable network, with improved communication between shards and reduced complexity. The increased target shard block sizes will also provide greater than 1 MB/s of data availability, synergizing well with promising L2 schemes such as ZKRollup and OVM.

Forward-Looking Thoughts and Implications

The ongoing development of eth2 is a testament to the power of community-driven innovation and the dedication of the Ethereum development team. As we move forward, we can expect to see continued refinement and improvement of the network, with a focus on scalability, security, and usability.

The implications of eth2 are far-reaching, with the potential to bring about a new era of decentralized applications and use cases. As we move forward, it will be exciting to see how the Ethereum community continues to innovate and push the boundaries of what is possible.

In conclusion, the eth2 quick update No. 2 provides a comprehensive overview of the latest developments in the eth2 development process. From the release of v0.9.0, Tonkatsu, to the ongoing refinement of Phase 1, the Ethereum development team is working tirelessly to bring about a new era of scalability, security, and usability to the Ethereum network.

Source: https://blog.ethereum.org/en/2019/10/31/eth2-quick-update-no-2