Michael Sproul f04d5ecddd Another check to prevent duplicate block imports (#8050)
Attempt to address performance issues caused by importing the same block multiple times.


  - Check fork choice "after" obtaining the fork choice write lock in `BeaconChain::import_block`. We actually use an upgradable read lock, but this is semantically equivalent (the upgradable read has the advantage of not excluding regular reads).

The hope is that this change has several benefits:

1. By preventing duplicate block imports we save time repeating work inside `import_block` that is unnecessary, e.g. writing the state to disk. Although the store itself now takes some measures to avoid re-writing diffs, it is even better if we avoid a disk write entirely.
2. By returning `DuplicateFullyImported`, we reduce some duplicated work downstream. E.g. if multiple threads importing columns trigger `import_block`, now only _one_ of them will get a notification of the block import completing successfully, and only this one will run `recompute_head`. This should help avoid a situation where multiple beacon processor workers are consumed by threads blocking on the `recompute_head_lock`. However, a similar block-fest is still possible with the upgradable fork choice lock (a large number of threads can be blocked waiting for the first thread to complete block import).


Co-Authored-By: Michael Sproul <michael@sigmaprime.io>
2025-09-16 04:10:42 +00:00
2025-09-10 12:59:24 +00:00
2025-09-10 12:59:24 +00:00
2025-09-10 12:59:24 +00:00

Lighthouse: Ethereum consensus client

An open-source Ethereum consensus client, written in Rust and maintained by Sigma Prime.

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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 https://blog.sigmaprime.io/tag/lighthouse which contains periodic 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).
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