ethereum/consensus-specs

Ethereum Proof-of-Stake Consensus Specifications

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 specifications can be made through pull requests.

Specifications

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

Unstable specifications

Accompanying documents

• Merkle Proofs
• SimpleSerialize (SSZ)
• Optimistic Sync

External specifications

• Deposit Contract
• Beacon APIs
• Engine APIs
• Beacon Metrics
• Builder Specs
• Cryptography Specs

Reference tests

• Stable reference tests are available as release assets.
• Unstable reference tests are available as nightly builds.

Contributors

Prerequisites

Install uv with:

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

Installation and usage

Clone the repository with:

git clone [email protected]:ethereum/consensus-specs.git

Switch to the directory:

cd consensus-specs

View the help output:

make help

Design goals

The following are the broad design goals for the Ethereum proof-of-stake consensus specifications:

• Minimize complexity, even at the cost of some losses in efficiency.
• Remain live through major network partitions and when very large portions of nodes go offline.
• Select components that are quantum secure or easily swappable for quantum-secure alternatives.
• Utilize crypto and design techniques that allow for a large participation of validators.
• Minimize hardware requirements such that a consumer laptop can participate.

Useful resources

• Design Rationale
• Phase0 Onboarding Document
• Combining GHOST and Casper paper
• Specifications viewer (zensical)
• Specifications viewer (jtraglia)
• The Eth2 Book