Beacon Chain Staking Frequently Asked Questions and Answers List

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特邀专栏作者

2020-12-08 11:05 (UTC+8)

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Explain in detail the basic concepts, rewards and punishments, risks, and operational options.

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Explain in detail the basic concepts, rewards and punishments, risks, and operational options.

Editor's Note: This article comes fromEthereum enthusiasts (ID: ethfans), reprinted by Odaily with authorization.

Editor's Note: This article comes from

Ethereum enthusiasts (ID: ethfans)

, reprinted by Odaily with authorization.

Editor's note: The main purpose of this article is to remind everyone of the risks of participating in the proof-of-stake (PoS) project known as "Ethereum 2.0" or "Eth2.0", and also hope to help you understand it in this way. In view of the fact that the project currently has only one of its design components, the "Beacon Chain", the "Beacon Chain" will be used to refer to the so-called "Eth2.0" below. I believe that after reading the answers to these FAQs (and their accompanying materials), you will understand this choice.

1. What basic concepts do I need to master?

What is Eth2.0?https://ethereum.org/en/eth2/vision/

Eth2.0 is a blockchain architecture proposed by the research team of the Ethereum Foundation ("EF"), which aims to realize a blockchain with proof-of-stake as the consensus mechanism and fragmented execution. The research in this part originates from EF's public vision since its inception (a blockchain that realizes the proof-of-stake consensus) and has been led by the EF research team, and, as expected, after such an architecture is available, its startup status will be Inherit the account status of the current Ethereum Blockchain Mainnet (Ethereum Blockchain Mainnet) at a certain moment, so it is called "Ethereum 2.0".

In terms of implementation steps, EF's plan is to launch in three phases, and each phase adds a component and some functions. So far, the design of the third phase ("Phase 2") has not been fully completed; the technical goals of Phase 1 may also be adjusted.

Currently, ETH holders on the Ethereum blockchain can participate in the "beacon chain" that operates on the proof-of-stake (PoS) mechanism. In design, the beacon chain is the core of the entire sharding execution system, but this core has no execution function (we will see the impact of this later).

Details can be found at:

What is a validator?

When talking about the beacon chain, a validator (Validator) is a participant in the PoS consensus process (like a miner who submits a proof of work in a PoW consensus). Beacon chain verifiers form a blockchain by voting on blocks, and get block rewards after completing the consensus.

What is the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism?

Proof of Stake (Proof of Stake) is a type of consensus mechanism: it determines the probability of becoming a block producer and the voting weight when voting on blocks based on the number of resources (such as tokens) in the system that participants occupy; The blocks supported by the supporters will become part of the main chain; and the supporters of the main chain blocks will also receive additional tokens as rewards.

The PoS mechanism used by the beacon chain is "Casper FFG algorithm" + "LMD-Ghost fork selection rule". The two sets of rules jointly define what validators should and should not do at different times. Those who follow the rules will be rewarded, and those who violate the rules will be punished.

How often does the beacon chain produce blocks?

The basic time unit of the beacon chain is not "block", but slot and epoch. A slot is 12 seconds; an epoch is 32 slots, or 6.4 minutes. Whenever an epoch terminates, the validators assign each validator to a slot of the next epoch to participate in voting according to predetermined rules (and the state of the beacon chain at that time) (called "witnesses ( attestator)"); at the same time, each slot will also have a dedicated validator responsible for proposing blocks (called "proposer"). If the proposer of a certain slot is offline at that time, the slot cannot produce blocks, forming a "missed" slot. So how often a block is produced on the beacon chain is uncertain, ideally a block can be formed every 12 seconds.

So is the validator's reward issued every time a block is produced?

Not really. The validator's rewards and penalties are settled once per epoch. Whenever an epoch ends and a new epoch starts, the verifiers will settle the rewards and punishments of the verifiers of the epoch according to the predetermined rules, so as to determine the voting weight of different verifiers in the new epoch.https://ethfans.org/posts/eth2-validator-launchpad

How to become a verifier?

First, you need to send ETH to the deposit contract 0x00000000219ab540356cbb839cbe05303d7705fa on the current Ethereum blockchain and provide the withdrawal public key and verification public key that you arranged for the verifier, and then wait for about 7.5 hours to register as a verifier . After successful registration, your verifier still needs to queue up in the candidate queue for a period of time before actually participating in the PoS consensus and receiving rewards. The length of this time depends on the length of the queue (because each epoch can enter the " Active validators" set has a limited number of validators).

The operation here is very complicated, please do not do it manually, be sure to use https://launchpad.ethereum.org/ (Validator Quick Launcher) to complete the deposit operation. Please look for this website and double check the address of the contract your transaction is sent to. Do not deposit tokens other than ETH.

An introduction to the site can be found at:

Secondly, you need to have a computer that guarantees your control, stable power and network supply, and a certain level of hardware, and runs a client software that controls your verifier's private key and participates in the beacon chain in real time. consensus. For specific requirements, please refer to the "Operation Suggestions" section below.

What is a validator key?https://ethfans.org/posts/validated-staking-on-eth2-4-keys

There are two pairs of key pairs related to a beacon chain verifier. One pair is called "verification key pair". The private key of this key pair is used by the verifier to sign and send the attestation message (attestation) when participating in the consensus. ); the other pair we call "withdrawal key pair", the private key of this key pair is used to withdraw the funds under the name of the validator after the validator has completely withdrawn from the validator team.

Both private keys need to be kept by yourself. If the verification private key is leaked, others can use your private key to send a witness message, which will cause your verifier to be severely punished; if the withdrawal private key is leaked, others can withdraw from your verifier. After that, you will take all the funds that belong to you first.

Both public keys need to be submitted to the deposit contract when depositing the deposit (again, unless you know the relevant cryptography and smart contracts very well, please use the guidance of https://launchpad.ethereum.org/ honestly process and the tools it provides to complete the operation).

The introduction can be seen at:

Ubuntu OS + Geth + Prysm: https://ethfans.org/posts/guide-to-staking-on-ethereum-2-0-ubuntu-medalla-prysm
Linux + Nethermind + Lighthouse: https://ethfans.org/posts/using-nethermind-to-run-a-validator-in-eth2
What client software did you just mention?https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1x541157FCThat's right, you need to run some software that hosts your verification private key and continuously sends and receives messages in the network to participate in the PoS consensus of the beacon chain. After all, from the perspective of the beacon chain (other validators), a validator is a key pair that has some money in its name and needs to constantly send attestation messages. If you do not participate in the consensus, your money will be lost .Specifically, your computer needs to be running two pieces of software: (1) "Eth1 clients" such as Geth, OpenEthereum, Nethermind, TurboGeth; (2) "Eth2 clients" such as Lighthouse, Prysm, Teku, Nimbus. You only need to choose one of the two categories.）

Video Tutorial:

ECN community

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For the most detailed introduction to the rewards and punishments of beacon chain validators, see:https://ethfans.org/posts/casper-ffg-explainer-by-adiasgandhttps://ethfans.org/posts/casper-ffg-in-eth2-0

For an introduction to Capser FFG (Finality, Double Voting, Surrounding Voting), see:

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The completion of any function can enable the beacon chain to open the transfer function: (1) let the beacon chain have a simple transfer function (or even enable the transfer function only between verifiers); (2) realize the Ethereum blockchain and Merger of the "beacon chain-sharding" system.

The former may be simpler, but it is not in line with the project's long-term goals, and it also violates the project's commitment to participants (increased hardware requirements); as for the latter, it obviously needs longer development time and time to seek social consensus.

And, no matter what technical target is chosen, it will have to take a long time to make it safe enough. So I personally don't expect the transfer function to be opened within a year. But that's just my personal opinion. And there are many variables.

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No, all third-party hosting solutions require you to trust the third party. For example, if a third party hosts your verification private key (you keep your own withdrawal private key), you still have to trust that the third party will properly operate the verifier and will not cause you to be confiscated (so you and the third party must achieve good distribution of responsibilities). If you hand over the money directly to a third party without even keeping the private key for withdrawal, the degree of trust is even greater (equivalent to depositing money in a centralized exchange). Currently, no one can cash out BETH.