Staking Router Module Proposal: Simple DVT

[KimonSh]

Three new Easy Tracks are now live:

1. To increase the key limits of the 12 SSV Cohort 1 clusters to 40 validators (following the performance report shared above).

2. To increase the key limits of the 5 SSV Super Clusters to 50 validators (as allowed in the first monitoring period) per the SDVTM Expansion Proposal. The first performance report is expected to be shared in the coming days.

3. To increase the key limits of the 13 Obol Cohort 2 clusters to 20 validators (following the performance report shared above).

[Massimo_ssv.network]

Hello everyone again. I wanted to provide an update, following the Alan fork of yesterday, October 8th, 2024.

The fork has had a couple of road bumps, when a new node version, labelled v2.0.0-unstable.2 was released on the eve of the scheduled fork. This was an overly precautious code change, that was deemed necessary, but only proved to be “helpful”.

Our analysis of Simple DVT clusters performance showed that clusters where all 7 operators’ nodes used v2.0.0-unstable.0 reacted correctly to the fork, and performed essentially equally to clusters where all 7 operators had upgraded their nodes to v2.0.0-unstable.2.

Our analysis also shows that the entirety of Simple DVT Testnet #4 clusters were essentially not impacted by the fork, meaning, their performance was unaffected, except for an initial dip, due to the restart of the peer-to-peer network, and consequent need for nodes to discover peers over the network. Below is a screenshot of our metrics showing all clusters, except for one (Xeric Xenolith):

(Bear in mind, this is Holesky testnet, which tends to have lower performance in absolute terms, compared to Mainnet)

The reason for excluding such cluster is that is predominantly composed of Dappnode users, who also has a majority of operators using Nehtermind client. This cluster found out that an unexpected update to the Nethermind package for Dappnode was faulty, and this essentially ground the cluster to a halt.

The screenshot below show such cluster in isolation, and the period of inactivity is clearly visible:

A different kind of analysis is the impact the fork had on the machines running the SSV nodes, and most importantly, the resource usage. Our internal numbers show:

• CPU: 75.62% decrease
• RAM: 23.19% decrease
• Receive bandwidth: 71.26% decrease
• Transmit bandwidth: 70.47% decrease

Which is in line with what community member have observed in an independent study:
https://www.reddit.com/r/SSVnetwork/s/x5zjobdYq5

Furthermore, I want to clarify that unlike previous updates, this one involves a network fork so with regards to Mainnet and Lido’s ProSecCo policies, we could gradually rollout the new client version, but the fork does not allow for staged testing of all the features of the upgrade, as there’s no way around having the entire network being updated simultaneously.

And with respect to Mainnet, the dates have not been finalized yet, but we are expecting the tentative date to be shifted and the Mainnet fork to happen in the second half of November, instead.

Lastly, we’re in the final stages of the SSV spec and node audit. The specs audit is already completed, and we’ve received an initial report for the node audit, which we’ve reviewed and iterated on (no critical issues were found). We expect the full audit, as well as the finalized report to be ready within a week.

The preliminary audit report is going to be submitted to the ProSecCo committee for initial review, although not publicly available, until the final report is available.

In any case, given the aforementioned shift in the Mainnet fork timeline, there should be sufficient time for Lido and its community to review them before the Mainnet version is released.

[KimonSh]

The NOM contributor workstream on behalf of the Lido Node Operator Subgovernance Group (LNOSG) would like to provide an update regarding the results of second Obol Simple DVT onboarding participant evaluations that took place on October 10th, 2024. This evaluation meeting followed the conclusion of the fourth Lido x Obol testnet, for participants to join the 3rd mainnet Lido x Obol Cohort.

Obol Testnet Participant Evaluation

A total of 150 operators completed the fourth Lido x Obol Simple DVT testnet and were subsequently evaluated by the LNOSG. These participants were sorted into 24 clusters of 7 participants each, with various types of infrastructure configurations and geographic locations.

Evaluation Results

During the evaluation discussion, the LNOSG together with testnet coordinators from the Lido DAO NOM Workstream and Obol Labs suggested 69 individual participants across 10 clusters with a 5/7 threshold configuration be onboarded to mainnet Obol clusters in the Simple DVT Module in the third cohort. As 26 normal Obol clusters are currently live on mainnet, a limited number of spots were available for participants to join with the expectation of 36 total clusters running in this configuration.

The proposed participants include a total of 36 net-new participants to mainnet Simple DVT, of which 22 are solo and community stakers. In some cases, participants with very strong performance that are already participating in SSV Mainnet Simple DVT Clusters were also proposed. In aggregate, a total of 33 solo and community stakers, 27 professionals, and 9 members of the Curated Node Operator set are proposed for onboarding in Cohort 3.

The candidates proposed by the LNOSG were considered to have shown strong performance, responsiveness, and reliability over the course of the fourth Lido x Obol testnet. These candidates utilize a diverse set of infrastructure hosting setups including on-premise, bare metal in a datacenter, and public cloud, and support a wide range of EL & CL clients.

The compositions of the 10 proposed clusters are designed to minimize latency and support infrastructure diversity. Additionally, all clusters have participants that support a range of EL & CL clients.

The proposed participants have been asked to confirm their desire to join the Simple DVT Operator Set via an Obol cluster. In case they do not reply affirmatively in a timely manner, or for some other reason cannot participate, the LNOSG will make an adjustment to the proposed list and share an update in this thread.

During the final meeting on October 10th, 2024, the LNOSG suggested to propose the following Obol based clusters for inclusion into the Lido Simple DVT Module Ethereum protocol:

Proposed Lido x Obol SDVT Clusters

You can find the full PDF with summary statistics and the LNOSG meeting recordings of the introduction and final conclusion of the cluster proposal in the public drive below. Due to the privileged/confidential nature of some of the information provided in some of the applications, the portion of the call where applications were discussed in detail was not recorded.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1AfgZOGfodOWtZxJTIk0TNNsFARtDFVGh

All participants in the testnet have been emailed notifying them of the results and are welcome to reach out via email to [email protected] for further clarification.

Path to Mainnet

DAO Discussion Period

A 7 day discussion period is now open for the DAO to discuss the proposed participants for the Cohort 3 Obol clusters within the Simple DVT module.

Should the DAO disagree with any of the proposed applicants, request additional information, or otherwise request additional input for the onboarding, the LNOSG will reconvene to propose a next course of action.

If after 7 days, no major changes are required by the DAO, the Simple DVT coordinators from the Lido DAO NOM Workstream and Obol Labs will begin the coordination process with cluster participants.

Next Steps

If no adjustments are required after the week discussion period, the Obol clusters will be added to coordination threads and begin the process of verifying addresses and setting up cluster multisigs. The Lido Simple DVT Module Committee will create their entries in the Simple DVT Node Operator Registry via Easy Track and notice will be provided in this thread.

The Simple DVT Module continues to scale, with active clusters across Obol & SSV Cohorts 1, 2 and the Super Clusters. The next SSV testnet evaluation is expected to take place before year-end, with another 15 clusters expected to be proposed, bringing the total number of normal clusters to 72 in addition to the 10 Super Clusters.

[KimonSh]

Summary

This update serves as the first performance report for the 5 Lido x SSV and 5 Lido x Obol Super Clusters active on mainnet via the Simple DVT Module. Given very strong performance results, it is proposed that the key limits for both of these cohorts be increased to 200 validators as outlined in the Expansion Proposal.

Performance Analysis

The performance monitoring period for the 10 Super Clusters began on September 24th, the day that all 10 clusters had active validators.

During this time, as per Rated, average uptime across the 5 Obol clusters stands at 99.91%, aggregate Block Proposal Success Rate of 100%, and Average Validator Effectiveness is 98.54%. For the 5 SSV clusters, average uptime stands at 99.99%, aggregate Block Proposal Success Rate of 100%, and Average Validator Effectiveness is 98.41%.This compares to the 30 day overall Ethereum validator set performance with an average Validator Effectiveness of 98.16%.

In the case of the Obol clusters, one block proposal was missed between the performance pull and publication of this report and an analysis is taking place. However, given the 23 successful proposals during the monitoring period, it is suggested that key limits remain on track to be increased.

For a detailed overview of cluster level metrics & the list of validator keys, see the analysis:

Super Cluster Performance Metrics

Proposed Next Steps

It is proposed that the key limits for the Super Clusters be raised to a maximum of 200 validators each until the next performance monitoring period (which will end no earlier than 21 days after the publication date of this update).

The relevant Easy Track motions for these key limit raises would be communicated in this thread and would follow the default approach of being veteoable by LDO holders over a 72 hour period.

This begins a 7 day discussion period for the DAO to consider the performance report and proposal to raise the key limits for the Super Clusters to 200 as described in the Expansion Proposal.

[KimonSh]

A new Easy Track has been started to increase the key limits of the 13 Obol Cohort 2 clusters to 40 validators (following the performance report shared above) and successful activation of the prior 15 keys.

[KimonSh]

Summary

This update serves as the second performance report for the 12 Lido x SSV Cohort 1 clusters active on mainnet via the Simple DVT Module. Given continued strong performance results, it is proposed that the key limits for SSV Cohort 1 are raised to 80 validators in a phased approach.

Performance Analysis

The performance monitoring period for Lido x SSV Cohort 1 began on July 20th, the day that all 12 clusters had active validators. The first report is linked here.

Since activation, as per Rated, average uptime across clusters stands at 99.96%, aggregate Block Proposal Success Rate of 95.45%, and Average Validator Effectiveness is 97.44%. This compares to the 30 day overall Ethereum validator set performance with an average Validator Effectiveness of 97.72%. One cluster, Graceful Gazelle, had a drop off in Validator Effectiveness to 92.69% that is currently being investigated. Excluding this cluster, Effectiveness for the cohort stands at 97.87%.

Block Proposal performance has generally been smooth, though a block was missed towards the end of the monitoring period that is also currently being investigated (though potentially is correlated to recent relay changes being processed by the clusters).

For a detailed overview of cluster level metrics & the list of validator keys, see the analysis: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yFlORj_r29HOw5Cn6HOIBSZzJpBNjUyzk1BrXFbAwb0/edit?usp=sharing 13

Proposed Next Steps

It is proposed that the key limits for Lido x SSV Cohort 1 clusters be raised to a maximum of 80 validators each until the next performance monitoring period (which will end no earlier than 37 days after the publication date of this update), in a phased approach of raising the key limits to 60, followed by an additional raise to 80 after the initial 20 additional keys have been deposited to and observed to activate without issues.

The relevant Easy Track motions for these key limit raises would be communicated in this thread and would follow the default approach of being veteoable by LDO holders over a 72 hour period.

This begins a 7 day discussion period for the DAO to consider the performance report and proposal to raise key limits to 80 validators in a phased approach for SSV Cohort 1.

[KimonSh]

Summary

This update serves as the first performance report for the Vivacious Viper Lido x Obol Cohort 2 cluster. As mentioned here, there was a late replacement for this cluster that resulted in the participants having to restart the setup process.

Given very strong performance results, it is proposed that the key limits for Vivacious Viper are increased to 40 validators.

Performance Analysis

The first performance monitoring period began on October 1st. Since that time, as per Rated, uptime for the cluster was 99.98%, Block Proposal Success Rate of 100% (1/1 proposal), and Average Validator Effectiveness was 98.24%. This compares to the 30 day overall Ethereum validator set performance with an average Validator Effectiveness of 97.67%.

For a detailed overview of cluster level metrics & the list of validator keys for all of Cohort 2, see the analysis: Obol Cohort 2 Performance Metrics - Google Sheets

Proposed Next Steps

It is proposed that the key limits for the Vivacious Viper cluster is increased to 40 validators given the very strong results, until the next performance monitoring period (which will end no earlier than 37 days after the publication date of this update). This would also allow the cluster to get closer to the other Cohort 2 Clusters already at 40 validators (with their next performance report to come in the following days.

The relevant Easy Track motions for this key limit raise will be communicated in this thread and would follow the default approach of being veteoable by LDO holders over a 72 hour period.

This begins a 7 day discussion period for the DAO to consider the performance report and proposal to raise key limits to 40 validators for the Vivacious Viper cluster.

[KimonSh]

Two new Easy Tracks have been started to raise key limits:

1. To increase the key limits of SSV Cohort 1 to 60 validators following the performance report.
2. To increase the key limits of the SSV Super Clusters to 200 validators following the performance report.

[Massimo_ssv.network]

Hello everyone, one more follow-up to the Alan fork related updates:

Last week the SSV Labs team has released the final version of the SSV node that will be used for the Alan fork on Mainnet. This version is tagged as v2.0.0, which you can find here.

The fork is scheduled for Nov. 25 12:00:23 UTC (Epoch 327,375), which would leave plenty of time for Lido’s policy to let Holesky clusters update to this version, keep it running on testnet for 2 weeks, then rollout the update on Mainnet.

At this point in time, I also want to share the audits which both the SSV protocol specs and the SSV node client have undergone and were delivered at the end of October by Hacken team.

Thanks for your attention.

[KimonSh]

Summary

This update serves as the second performance report for the 5 Lido x Obol Super Clusters active on mainnet via the Simple DVT Module, currently running 200 validators each.

Given continued strong results, it is proposed that the cluster key limits are increased to 500 validators following a week DAO discussion period.

Performance Analysis

The performance monitoring period for the 5 Super Clusters began on September 24th and ran until November 5th.

During this time, as per Rated, average uptime across the 5 Obol clusters stands at 99.79%, aggregate Block Proposal Success Rate of 97.94%, and Average Validator Effectiveness is 97.06%. This compares to the 30 day overall Ethereum validator set performance with an average Validator Effectiveness of 97.46%.

The overall performance has been strong with 4 out 5 clusters having an aggregate Block Proposal Success Rate of 100% while the cluster Ethereal Elf missed 2 block proposals out of 20 and has an aggregate Block Proposal Success Rate of 90%. The cluster Ethereal Elf also missed another block proposal between the performance pull and publication of this report. Analysis of the missed blocks is ongoing and operators are in the process of verifying their configurations to resolve the issue.

For a detailed overview of cluster level metrics & the list of validator keys, see the analysis: Super Cluster Performance Metrics - Google Sheets

Proposed Next Steps

Given strong aggregate results, it is proposed that cluster key limits for the 5 Obol Super Clusters are increased to 500 validators.

The relevant Easy Track motions for these key limit raises would be communicated in this thread and would follow the default approach of being veteoable by LDO holders over a 72 hour period.

This begins a 7 day discussion period for the DAO to consider the performance report and proposal to raise the key limits for the Super Clusters to 500 as described in the Expansion Proposal.

[KimonSh]

Summary

This update serves as the second performance report for the 13 Lido x Obol Clusters active on mainnet via the Simple DVT Module, excluding the Vivacious Viper cluster which is discussed in the post above.

Performance Analysis

The performance monitoring period for the 14 Clusters began on August 15th and runs until November 5th. All of the 13 Cohort 2 clusters are running 40 validators excluding Vivacious Viper.

During this time, as per Rated, average uptime across the 13 Obol clusters stands at 99.94%, aggregate Block Proposal Success Rate of 93.48%, and Average Validator Effectiveness is 98.04%. This compares to the 30 day overall Ethereum validator set performance with an average Validator Effectiveness of 97.46%.

The overall performance has been strong with 10 out of 13 clusters having an aggregate Block Proposal Success Rate of 100%, 3 other clusters missing 1 Block Proposal each and 1 cluster (Whistling Wolf) missing 3 out of 7. Clusters have been updating their MEV Boost relay configs to include relays from the “must use” and “allowed” lists to better optimize for geographic related latency. In addition, coordinators from Obol are working with members of the Whistling Wolf cluster to identify what is causing the lower than expected Block Proposal Success Rate.

For a detailed overview of cluster level metrics & the list of validator keys, see the analysis: Obol Cohort 2 Performance Metrics - Google Sheets

Proposed Next Steps

Given overall strong aggregate results, it is proposed that cluster key limits for the 13 Obol Cohort 2 clusters are increased to 80 validators in a phased approach, first starting with 60 before increasing limits to 80 validators.

However, in the case of Whistling Wolf, key limits will not be increased until there is an observed improvement in the Block Proposal Success rate, after which the cluster will follow the same path of increase.

The relevant Easy Track motions for these key limit raises would be communicated in this thread and would follow the default approach of being veteoable by LDO holders over a 72 hour period.

This begins a 7 day discussion period for the DAO to consider the performance report and proposal to raise the key limits for the Obol Cohort 2 clusters to 80 validators in a phased approach.