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Goldfish: A Provably Secure Replacement for LMD GHOST in PoS Ethereum

Summary

The article discusses the Goldfish protocol, a provably secure replacement for the LMD GHOST fork-choice rule in PoS Ethereum. The protocol is designed to be more efficient and secure than LMD GHOST, and comes with a security proof. However, the Goldfish protocol is only designed to work in an asynchronous network, and so it may not be suitable for all situations.

Q&As

What is the difference between proof-of-work and proof-of-stake?
Proof-of-work is a system that requires miners to solve complex mathematical problems in order to add blocks to the blockchain. Proof-of-stake is a system that allows users to stake their tokens in order to validate transactions and add blocks to the blockchain.

What is the LMD GHOST fork-choice rule?
The LMD GHOST fork-choice rule is a component of Ethereum's proof-of-stake consensus protocol that has been the subject of multiple attacks and patches.

What is the Goldfish protocol?
The Goldfish protocol is a drop-in replacement for the LMD GHOST fork-choice rule that comes with a security proof.

How does the Goldfish protocol differ from the LMD GHOST fork-choice rule?
The Goldfish protocol is similar to the LMD GHOST fork-choice rule, but includes an additional phase for validators to synchronize their views on the vote counts and confirm blocks.

What are the advantages of the Goldfish protocol?
The advantages of the Goldfish protocol include its simplicity, which allows for a rigorous security proof, and its vote buffering and vote expiry mechanisms, which carefully synchronize honest validators' views.

AI Comments

👍 It's great to see Ethereum moving towards a more secure consensus protocol with Goldfish. This will help to harden Ethereum against potential attacks and make it more robust in the long run.

👎 I'm not sure that Goldfish is going to be much more secure than LMD GHOST. There's still a lot of work to be done in terms of understanding and formalizing the protocol.

AI Discussion

Me: It's about a new provably secure replacement for LMD GHOST in PoS Ethereum.

Friend: What are the implications of this article?

Me: The implications of this article are that the new Goldfish protocol is more secure than LMD GHOST and that it can be used as a drop-in replacement for LMD GHOST in PoS Ethereum.

Action items

Technical terms

Proof-of-Work (PoW)
A system that ties mining capability to computational power. Miners compete to solve difficult math problems, and the first to do so is rewarded with cryptocurrency.
Proof-of-Stake (PoS)
A system that ties mining capability to how many coins a miner holds. The more coins a miner holds, the more likely they are to be chosen to validate a block, and the more they stand to gain if they do.
LMD GHOST
The current fork-choice rule used by Ethereum. It is notoriously brittle, with multiple recent attacks and patches.
Goldfish
A proposed replacement for LMD GHOST that comes with a security proof.
Asynchrony
A situation where the network delay is longer than the assumed bound. This can lead to protocol failures.

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