Lodestar Roadmap and Vision (Updated Apr 2023) :star2:

[philknows]

This is a living document, Last updated: April 2023

Lodestar Vision Roadmap and Planning (April 2023)

Quarterly Goals:

• Q1 2023: https://github.com/ChainSafe/lodestar/issues/5381
• Q2 2023: https://github.com/ChainSafe/lodestar/issues/5382
• Q3: 2023: https://github.com/ChainSafe/lodestar/issues/5751

Tracking Issues:

• Performance Optimizations Tracker: https://github.com/ChainSafe/lodestar/issues/3466
• Memory Optimizations Tracker: https://github.com/ChainSafe/lodestar/issues/3464
• Light Client Planning Tracker: https://github.com/ChainSafe/lodestar/issues/3469
• Metrics Tracker: https://github.com/ChainSafe/lodestar/issues/2468

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Vision Statement

How is Lodestar going to going to make our users lives and the Ethereum protocol ecosystem better?

• Light Clients R&D: Develop access to trustless Ethereum execution data to low-resource devices
• Client Diversity: First and only Ethereum consensus client written in TypeScript
• Experimentation: The choice client to build and conduct rapid prototyping, catered to developers of the most popular developer ecosystem

Value Proposition

Who are our users and customers?

• Prospective/Existing Users and contributors of Ethereum
• Prospective Node Operators (Stakers)
• Prospective Hackers/Builders
• Large enterprise/entities
• General Public (Curious individuals and JS/TS devs learning web3)

What are their problems?

• Contribution: Ability to start getting involved with Ethereum protocol dev with JS/TS
• Infrastructure: Reducing/eliminate point of failures (e.g. Over-reliance on centralized providers)
• Data Consumption: Low-resource devices need access to trustless blockchain data
• Usability of Lodestar

How do we intend to solve those problems?

• Improve documentation. user/dev experience and performance of Lodestar
• Integrations with community initiatives, especially those aligned with values prioritizing network health
• Bootstrap light client server networks, serve light client API over p2p network
• Rapid prototyping and experimentation: Contribute to research and assisting experimenters with building with or on top of Lodestar

Why should they choose our solution over the alternatives?

• Having tools/documentation/guidance to build on top of Lodestar
• Provide the ability and support to extend our product
  • Example: SnowBridge <> Lodestar Light Client, Dandelion RLP
• Targets TypeScript/JavaScript developers, a huge portion of the developer market.
• Maintain BLS wrappers, SSZ, gossipsub, discv5, enrviewer/enrbuilder - Very useful open-source libraries for other developers

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Workstreams to Achieve Vision (April 2023)

Workstream 1: Technical and Talent Debt

• Attract new developers to learn, experiment and contribute to Lodestar, especially those curious with Ethereum protocol development.
• Scout for promising talent to join or contribute to Lodestar: forkChoice/Eth experts, nodeJS experts, TypeScript experts, networking experts. 🦄
• Performance related issues to better optimize and increase effectiveness of validators on Ethereum mainnet

Workstream 2: Lodestar v2.0.0

Planning TBD

Workstream 3: Light Client R&D

• Lodestar prover (docs, inclusion into projects that heavily use JSON-RPC such as Metamask)
• Slashing specs
• Light clients + L2 research
• Browser usage research

Workstream 4: Community Usage and Developer Ecosystem

• Increase usage of Lodestar software to promote client diversity within the Ethereum proof of stake ecosystem
• Provide more guides & tutorials on Lodestar and other ecosystem tooling
• Update & simplify documentation on Lodestar and other ecosystem tooling
• Aim to achieve a > 1% usage on Mainnet
• Further engage with community initiatives that aim to promote client diversity:
  • EthStaker initiatives: GitPOAP, tutorials, demos, collaborations.
  • Software/Hardware: DAppNode/Avado/NiceNode
  • Lodestar User Incentive Program
• Engage with other community initiatives which benefit Ethereum Consensus goals
  • Secret Shared Validators: Obol Network
  • Lido Node Operations
• Improve interoperability with other clients and software such as utilizing our validator client with another client’s beacon node
• Integrating and promoting Lodestar within the JavaScript/TypeScript/AssemblyScript community.
  • Better technical write-ups
  • Figure out ways to make Lodestar the coolest project for JS/TS devs to work on
• Improve docs starting with most used such as BLS, gossipsub, SSZ, user docs
• Supporting/offering bounties? To support devs wanting to help build out/extend our common libraries. Hackathons? Sponsorships for hackathons?

Workstream 5 - Supporting Ethereum Core & Community Initiatives

• Support the Ethereum protocol community by participation and active R&D for future network upgrades.
• Aiding in Ethereum specs and development
• Regular attendance and active participation in public Ethereum Consensus calls

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Workstreams to Achieve Vision (June 2022)

Workstream 1 - Technical Debt

• Attract new developers to learn, experiment and contribute to Lodestar, especially those curious with Ethereum protocol development.
• Scout for promising talent to join or contribute to Lodestar: forkChoice/Eth experts, nodeJS experts, TypeScript experts, networking experts. 🦄

Workstream 2 - Lodestar v1.0.0 LTS

• Integrate and solidify components that will not constitute a breaking change near-term. We will adopt SEMVER v2.0.0
  • https://github.com/ChainSafe/lodestar/issues/4063
• Complete audit with the Ethereum Foundation and be endorsed officially as the 5th Ethereum Consensus client:
  • https://github.com/ChainSafe/lodestar/issues/3008
• Continue work to strive for performance, optimization, stability and robustness.
• Gain customer/user trust as a production-ready (mainnet) client.
• New website:
  • https://github.com/ChainSafe/lodestar/issues/3653

Workstream 3 - Light Client Initiatives

• Adopt light client API discussed at Devconnect 2022:
  • https://github.com/ChainSafe/lodestar/issues/3952
• Utilize the Merge testnets to interact and use execution data from Ethereum execution (eth1) nodes:
  • https://github.com/ChainSafe/lodestar/issues/3796
• Implement larger initiatives with community members/researchers such as Portal Network:
  • https://github.com/ChainSafe/lodestar/issues/3077
• Push for implementing and promoting community adoption of light client specs:
  • https://github.com/ChainSafe/lodestar/issues/2985
  • https://github.com/ethereum/beacon-APIs/pull/181#issuecomment-1104835153
  • https://github.com/ethereum/consensus-specs/pull/2802
• Resolve or mitigate light client open questions including:
  • monitization research including zolt's
  • language for requesting proofs
  • proof serialization
  • networking
  • peer discovery
  • end-user light client UX issues
  • end-user light client incentive issues
  • eth2 consensus data vs L2 data
  • What are the differences between an end-user light client and a consensus-level light client?
  • How to kate commitments / data availability relate to end-user light clients?
  • How would light clients look like in roll-ups?
  • How would light clients look in the concept of a sharding model?

Lower Priority

• Create a blockchain explorer dapp utilizing our light client prototype
• Expand website offerings
• Modified simplified Lodestar nodes that allows users to inspect the beacon state as it is updated. Semi-interactive block explorer based on our node.
• Light client demo: app is block explorer that uses light client proofs

Workstream 4 - Community Usage and Developer Ecosystem

• Increase usage of Lodestar software to promote client diversity within the Ethereum proof of stake ecosystem
• Provide more guides & tutorials
• Update & simplify documentation
• Aim to achieve a > 1% usage on Mainnet
• Further engage with community initiatives that aim to promote client diversity:
  • https://github.com/ChainSafe/lodestar/issues/3687
  • EthStaker initiatives: GitPOAP, tutorials, demos, collaborations.
  • DAppNode/Avado
• Engage with other community initiatives which benefit Ethereum Consensus goals
  • Secret Shared Validators: Obol Network
  • Lido Node Operations
• Improve interoperability with other clients and software such as utilizing our validator client with another client’s beacon node
• Integrating and promoting Lodestar within the JavaScript/TypeScript/AssemblyScript community.
  • Better technical write-ups
  • Figure out ways to make Lodestar the coolest project for JS devs to work on
• Improve docs starting with most used such as BLS, gossipsub, SSZ, user docs
• Supporting/offering bounties? To support devs wanting to help build out/extend our common libraries. Hackathons? Sponsorships for hackathons?

Workstream 5 - Supporting Ethereum Core & Community Initiatives

• Support the Ethereum community by participation and active R&D for future network upgrades.
  • https://github.com/ChainSafe/lodestar/issues/3945
• Aiding in Ethereum post-merge standards
• Regular attendance and active participation in public Ethereum Consensus calls
• Standardization in Eth Consensus (eth2) terminology and protocols

[philknows]

Opening a new roadmap issue specifically for v2.0. Learning that having a roadmap is great, but things don't always go as planned as things change relatively quickly in the Ethereum environment.