## Issue Addressed
Fix for the eth1 cache sync issue observed on Ropsten.
## Proposed Changes
Ropsten blocks are so infrequent that they broke our algorithm for downloading eth1 blocks. We currently try to download forwards from the last block in our cache to the block with block number [`remote_highest_block - FOLLOW_DISTANCE + FOLLOW_DISTANCE / ETH1_BLOCK_TIME_TOLERANCE_FACTOR`](6f732986f1/beacon_node/eth1/src/service.rs (L489-L492)). With the tolerance set to 4 this is insufficient because we lag by 1536 blocks, which is more like ~14 hours on Ropsten. This results in us having an incomplete eth1 cache, because we should cache all blocks between -16h and -8h. Even if we were to set the tolerance to 2 for the largest allowance, we would only look back 1024 blocks which is still more than 8 hours.
For example consider this block https://ropsten.etherscan.io/block/12321390. The block from 1536 blocks earlier is 14 hours and 20 minutes before it: https://ropsten.etherscan.io/block/12319854. The block from 1024 blocks earlier is https://ropsten.etherscan.io/block/12320366, 8 hours and 48 minutes before.
- This PR introduces a new CLI flag called `--eth1-cache-follow-distance` which can be used to set the distance manually.
- A new dynamic catchup mechanism is added which detects when the cache is lagging the true eth1 chain and tries to download more blocks within the follow distance in order to catch up.
Lighthouse: Ethereum consensus client
An open-source Ethereum consensus client, written in Rust and maintained by Sigma Prime.
Overview
Lighthouse is:
- Ready for use on Ethereum consensus mainnet.
- Fully open-source, licensed under Apache 2.0.
- Security-focused. Fuzzing techniques have been continuously applied and several external security reviews have been performed.
- Built in Rust, a modern language providing unique safety guarantees and excellent performance (comparable to C++).
- Funded by various organisations, including Sigma Prime, the Ethereum Foundation, ConsenSys, the Decentralization Foundation and private individuals.
- Actively involved in the specification and security analysis of the Ethereum proof-of-stake consensus specification.
Staking Deposit Contract
The Lighthouse team acknowledges
0x00000000219ab540356cBB839Cbe05303d7705Fa
as the canonical staking deposit contract address.
Documentation
The Lighthouse Book contains information for users and developers.
The Lighthouse team maintains a blog at lighthouse-blog.sigmaprime.io which contains periodical progress updates, roadmap insights and interesting findings.
Branches
Lighthouse maintains two permanent branches:
stable: Always points to the latest stable release.- This is ideal for most users.
unstable: Used for development, contains the latest PRs.- Developers should base their PRs on this branch.
Contributing
Lighthouse welcomes contributors.
If you are looking to contribute, please head to the Contributing section of the Lighthouse book.
Contact
The best place for discussion is the Lighthouse Discord server.
Sign up to the Lighthouse Development Updates mailing list for email notifications about releases, network status and other important information.
Encrypt sensitive messages using our PGP key.
Donations
Lighthouse is an open-source project and a public good. Funding public goods is hard and we're grateful for the donations we receive from the community via:
- Gitcoin Grants.
- Ethereum address:
0x25c4a76E7d118705e7Ea2e9b7d8C59930d8aCD3b(donation.sigmaprime.eth).
