Note: This article is from the official blog of obol, compiled by MarsBit.
Today, we announced the first distributed validator on the Ethereum mainnet! This massive milestone marks the beginning of a new chapter in Ethereum staking that is more secure, resilient, and decentralized for all validators and stakers.
After 3 years of research, 2 years of development and 9 months of testing (with two testnets, Athena and Bia), the world's first DV was successfully launched. The strong performance of validators shows that DVT has the potential to improve the performance, resiliency, and security of Ethereum validators, especially for those who choose to run validators at home.
The validator is called ETH and consists of nodes in Ireland, Estonia and Canada. Each node runs entirely at home and is the purest form of verification. Since the first DV was activated, its performance has been impressive, with a total of 10,860 successful verifications as of February 22, 2023, with an average efficiency of 98.6%. What's more, despite the geographical differences, the validator's average inclusion distance is 1.009, which is lower than the network average of 1.021.
dv494484. Rating meter for ETH
This marks the first phase of Obol bringing DV to the Ethereum mainnet. Today, we are pleased to announce that the adoption and harmonization of Obol is ahead of schedule. In the coming weeks, we will share a series of key updates and community feedback as we move towards the Obol V1 milestone.
Below, we describe the current design philosophy, protocol roadmap, and adoption strategy.
Obol DV Design Core
When designing and implementing Obol V1, a core set of designs was inspired by Ben Edgington 's OG post on the design philosophy of Serenity (then Eth2).
The following are the core design elements of Obol V1:
1. Resilience: remove validators as single points of failure in the network
2. Decentralization: Make the protocol easily accessible to validators of all types and sizes
3. Security: Increase the security of validators by including distributed key encryption
4. Anticorrelation: Designing DVTs in a way that does not become a vulnerability by itself
5. Performance: The performance of distributed validators must be equal to or better than ordinary validators
In future blogs, we will describe these core design elements in more detail.
Obol DVT Adoption Strategy
The way DVT is rolled out will be similar to the way it was built: open, public and highly collaborative. DVT adoption will be similar to Eth2 rollout (for all adopters in phases 0, 1, 1.5 and 2!), i.e. in phases. ETH is a stage 0 release, the first step in our journey towards Obol V1.
As DVTs gain popularity, early DVT implementations must maintain the same performance as current validators. This is critical to the early adoption and continued support of the validator ecosystem, and it is something we put a lot of emphasis on when designing, implementing, and testing Obol. As we build towards the future, we are also focused on highlighting Charon's performance across all validator types; Mainnet DV is running at core team members' homes on three continents. Our vision for the future includes validators being shared by participants around the world, which greatly influences the way we design, introduce, and test Obol DVT.
Due to the diversity of Ethereum validator types, we will take a phased approach to rolling out Obol. At each stage, we will target and focus on a specific user segment. This will improve the long-term DVTs (i.e. LSPs, home validators, DeFi protocols, etc.) that make up Ethereum’s infrastructure. This allows the project to maintain performance, security, and availability while providing value to the Ethereum ecosystem. Each stage in the roadmap will also lay the groundwork for the next stage.
Obol V1 Roadmap
Obol V1 Roadmap
The research, design and implementation of Obol V1 has been underway for 24 months and has now reached an impressive stage on the roadmap. At one point we thought we were going to build DKG in the browser.
At the beginning of our journey, we had difficulty communicating with V1, which led us to focus on language and scope early on. After an incredible 5 week series of sessions, we worked with Deep Work Studio to build the initial branding, information hierarchy, task alignment, feedback and design of DV Launchpad .
Through this work, we were able to decompose the Obol network into four functional areas, namely creation, testing, operation, and coordination. Once we organized our work by these pillars, we were able to start structuring by working groups, scopes and resources.
Together, these 4 functional areas influenced the Obol roadmap and the capabilities of Obol V1, the first push to lay the groundwork for a global infrastructure network of distributed validators.
Functional areas of Obol
In the design of V1, the Obol network develops and maintains four core infrastructures.
DV Launchpad: A web application for migrating to or creating an Obol distributed validator
Charon: A fault-tolerant middleware client for Ethereum validators
Obol Managers: A set of smart contracts that enable validators to be shared economically across groups
Obol Testnets: A set of coordinated events and tools for testing permissionless decentralized validators
In Obol V1, we will also take a phased rollout approach.
Pre- Alpha: Deploy the first Mainnet DV
In order to understand the performance of DV on the main network, you need to deploy DV on the main network. We decided to deploy the first DV with geographic diversity to expedite latency understanding and performance testing before submitting the first audit. The pre- Alpha phase also includes the submission of our first audit with Sigma Prime (next week!), and the successful completion of the DVT performance report created by the Miga Labs team. The good news is that the first Mainnet DV is running brilliantly.
Alpha: Increase the total number of DV validators to 1% of active validators
The next step will be to launch Obol with a group of trusted partners, gradually integrating Obol into existing and upcoming staking applications. This phase will begin after we have completed our audit and addressed any required changes. Rolling out in this way provides the collaboration and attention needed to build the initial mass deployment, ensuring that early mass deployments are built with collaboration and care. This allows us to capture more complex learning outcomes in preparation for the launch of V1. We are currently working closely with our partners and will ensure representation of all validator types.
Beta: Push total DV validators to 5% of active validators
After a successful Alpha release, we will begin opening up Obol to a wider range of user types and project integrations with a commercial license. This allows us to take advantage of early learning, greatly increasing the adoption seen in the Alpha stage. As more and more operators adopt the technology, our main focus is to ensure that the protocol maintains the necessary quality.
V1 Launch: All operators are allowed to deploy Obol DV on the mainnet
The public launch phase of our Mainnet journey marks the completion of the Obol V1 journey. By this time, we expect approximately 10% of network stakes to be protected by DVT. After completing the Alpha and Beta phases, we will complete all V1 testnets and audits to ensure product performance, security, and usability. At this point, we plan to generalize Obol for all validator types.
During the Obol V1 phase, we will run a total of three testnets.
Athena (and OOC) (closed)
The Athena testnet is our first public testnet launching from July 2022 to September 2022. In parallel, the Obol Operator Community (OOC) brings in professional validators to test DVT in their environment for the first time . In conclusion, this is the first synthetic testnet we are running to get DVT into the hands of validators.
Performance metrics for the Athena testnet running on Goerli
Through the efforts of our community, we were able to launch more than 100 DV clusters in more than 40 countries , mostly at-home validation. These clusters perform well, with average inclusive latencies in the range of 1.57 and proposer availability close to 100%, all on par with current top validators. Through these test efforts, we verified the distributed validator's ability to operate at high performance while reducing downtime.
Bia (run)
The Bia testnet currently underway aims to test how Obol will scale in terms of performance and usability. The goal is to activate over 500 clusters globally to see if at-home validators can create DV clusters in a self-service fashion without a lot of support. At the same time, we are also testing Bia with professional operators and expanding the cluster to run 1000 validators to test the scalability of the protocol.
Bia has been running for over 3 weeks and initial results are very positive. We have already surpassed our goal of >650 (!!) clusters. They only include locating and organizing each other on Discord channels within the community, and using DV Launchpad . We will monitor the performance of these clusters as they go live.
Circe (coming soon)
After the Beta release, we will launch the attack net Circe. It will test the protocol to find potential vulnerabilities and limitations in the protocol, such as Obol DVT's curable risks. This is a crucial final step towards the completion of the protocol to ensure it is completely secure during the public release phase.
Obol V2
While the roadmap for V1 is exciting, we have been actively working on our vision for Obol V2. Obol V2 mainly focuses on minimizing the trust of distributed validators through enhanced applied cryptography and cryptoeconomics. We recently selected a partner and core development team to collaborate on research and build Obol V2. We look forward to more exciting announcements on this front in Q2!
The final state of Obol is a multi-client DVT protocol that allows any validator to join a cluster without trusting (or even knowing) who the other operators in the same cluster are. The phase of V1 will lay the foundation for building the high performance, security and availability required for Obol V2.
how to participate
If you're excited about DVT and want to get involved in advancing the technology, there are a number of ways you can join.
join the core team
Obol is hiring across the stack and around the world. Currently, the core team consists of 24 participants and 17 advisors who work closely together in the development and further adoption of DVT. We are looking for talented people who are passionate about building the future of staking to join us! You can find all our job openings on our jobs page .
Participate in Bia testnet
We continue to actively welcome home and professional validators to participate in Bia . If you are a home validator, you can learn how to register for the testnet in our Bia playbook . If you are a professional validator, please contact us at [email protected] .
Contribute to our ambassador program
In addition to participating in the testnet, more content and information about DVT needs to be shared globally in different languages. To promote and reward further education at DVT, we have established the Obol Ambassador Program . If you're interested in writing or translating material, check it out!
self-taught DVT
Even if your schedule doesn't allow for deep participation, we encourage any validator or anyone staking ETH to learn DVT. DVT will become the standard security middleware for the entire staking ecosystem, and it is important for you to understand its benefits and ensure your staked ETH is protected. Here is a list of resources created by the community to help you get started quickly:
● What is DVT? (by Corver Roos and Brett Li @ Obol Labs )
● Sorting out Distributed Validator Technology (by Isaac Villalobos @ Nethermind )
● A tour of Verifiable Secret Sharing schemes and DKG protocols (by Ignacio Manzur Tomasini
● @ Nethermind ) Enhancing Ethereum's Resilience With DVT (by Stephanie Dunbar @ Messari )
● How DVT Helps Liquid Staking Protocols (by Brett Li @ Obol Labs )
● Understanding Ethereum Staking Deposits (by Jim McDonald @ Attestant )
