Ethereum Proof-of-Stake Consensus Specifications
To learn more about proof-of-stake and sharding, see the PoS documentation, sharding documentation and the research compendium.
This repository hosts the current Ethereum proof-of-stake specifications. Discussions about design rationale and proposed changes can be brought up and discussed as issues. Solidified, agreed-upon changes to the spec can be made through pull requests.
Specs
Core specifications for Ethereum proof-of-stake clients can be found in specs. These are divided into features.
Features are researched and developed in parallel, and then consolidated into sequential upgrades when ready.
Stable Specifications
| Seq. | Code Name | Fork Epoch | Specs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Phase0 | 0 |
CoreThe beacon chainDeposit contractBeacon chain fork choiceAdditionsHonest validator guideP2P networkingWeak subjectivity |
| 1 | Altair | 74240 |
CoreBeacon chain changesAltair forkAdditionsLight client sync protocol (full node, light client, networking)Honest validator guide changesP2P networking |
| 2 | Bellatrix ("The Merge") | 144896 |
CoreBeacon Chain changesBellatrix forkFork choice changesAdditionsHonest validator guide changesP2P networking |
| 3 | Capella | 194048 |
CoreBeacon chain changesCapella forkAdditionsLight client sync protocol changes (fork, full node, networking)Validator additionsP2P networking |
In-development Specifications
| Code Name or Topic | Specs | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Deneb (tentative) | CoreBeacon Chain changesDeneb forkPolynomial commitmentsFork choice changesAdditionsLight client sync protocol changes (fork, full node, networking)Honest validator guide changesP2P networking | |
| Sharding (outdated) | CoreBeacon Chain changesAdditionsP2P networking | |
| Custody Game (outdated) | CoreBeacon Chain changesAdditionsHonest validator guide changes | Dependent on sharding |
| Data Availability Sampling (outdated) | CoreCore types and functionsFork choice changesAdditionsP2P NetworkingSampling process | Dependent on shardingTechnical explainer |
| EIP-6110 | CoreBeacon Chain changesEIP-6110 forkAdditionsHonest validator guide changes |
Accompanying documents can be found in specs and include:
Additional specifications for client implementers
Additional specifications and standards outside of requisite client functionality can be found in the following repos:
Design goals
The following are the broad design goals for the Ethereum proof-of-stake consensus specifications:
- to minimize complexity, even at the cost of some losses in efficiency
- to remain live through major network partitions and when very large portions of nodes go offline
- to select all components such that they are either quantum secure or can be easily swapped out for quantum secure counterparts when available
- to utilize crypto and design techniques that allow for a large participation of validators in total and per unit time
- to allow for a typical consumer laptop with
O(C)resources to process/validateO(1)shards (including any system level validation such as the beacon chain)
Useful external resources
For spec contributors
Documentation on the different components used during spec writing can be found here:
Online viewer of the latest release (latest master branch)
Consensus spec tests
Conformance tests built from the executable python spec are available in the Ethereum Proof-of-Stake Consensus Spec Tests repo. Compressed tarballs are available in releases.