All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.
The format is based on Keep a Changelog (modification: no type change headlines) and this project adheres to Semantic Versioning.
This is the official Merge-ready release for the EthereumJS client! 🎉 Note that it is not possible yet to run EthereumJS client on mainnet though. This release nevertheless implements all final Merge specifications and includes Merge-related configuration parameters and is ready for current (Sepolia
) and future Merge related testnets and development networks.
This release also updates the underlying EthereumJS libraries to the final breaking versions.
This release updates the underlying EthereumJS libraries to the newly released RC 1 versions.
This release mainly fixes various hardfork issues in beacon sync discovered after the goerli
testnet merge, see PR #2230:
- Engine's assemble block was not using correct fork
- Skeleton's call to getBlockHeaders wasn't resulting in correct block and hence the block bodies were also not correct because of which skeleton backfill was breaking
- Reverse block fetcher sync was picking up a peer which seemed to be providing
london
blocks instead of merge causing the fetcher to break again and again instead of just banning that peer. - Skeleton's getBlock was not using the correct hardfork
This will make beacon sync on Goerli and other Merge-activated chains more robust.
- Mainnet Merge
TTD
58750000000000000000000
has been added to themainnet
chain configuration of the underlyingCommon
library, PR #2185
This release updates the underlying EthereumJS libraries to the newly released Beta 3 versions.
- More robust beacon sync (additional recovery and reorg scenarios handled), PR #1968
- Allow
eth_call
RPC call without providing theto
parameter, PR #2084 - Bring back client browser support from a non-working to an experimental state, PR #2091
- Set
goerli
Merge TTD to 10790000 (underlying `@ethereumjs/common library), PR #2079 - Update
sepolia
mergeForkIdTransition
Merge transition HF (separate "artificial" HF construct only for networking layer) (underlying `@ethereumjs/common library), PR #2098
This is the first client release which supports the Merge transition in conjunction with a consensus layer client (we recommend Lodestar), but are excited to see other combinations being tested too) on one of the official public Ethereum testnets, with Sepolia being a good candidate here since the network is relatively new and has not yet grown so extensively.
Client instructions have been updated accordingly here and you can use these instructions to start-up both clients, see them syncing first both the separate networks and then joining forces at Sepolia Merge block 1450409! 🐼 ❤️
This is the first client release which works with the next generation EthereumJS libraries being published as Beta releases right now. The client is a first test bed for these releases which include heavy structural changes (e.g. the VM separated into three different packages VM, EVM and StateManager). In return the client benefits directly from some of the integrations being done, e.g. the complete switch to native JavaScript BigInts which leads to a substantially better VM execution performance.
Note that DB format has changed along with this release and it is therefore necessary to delete the old chain and state data directories. If this is causing you substantial hazzle please ask in our monorepo or Discord server on a migration script. While this will cause us some extra work it might actually be possible to provide one if there is some demand.
With the transition to PoS chains running the client in a CL/EL setup the activation of receipt saving often gets necessary, since some CL clients (e.g. Lodestar) rely on the eth_getLogs
RPC call to be activated to be able to properly work with the EthereumJS client.
Since the EthereumJS client is still mainly used in not-that-much-grown testnets and environments (so the additional disk space requirements are not that grave) we have therefore decided to turn the respective option --saveReceipts
on by default, see PR #2040.
You can use --saveReceipts=false
if you would rather want to deactive again.
- Miscellaneous fixes for beacon sync in reverseblockfetcher, skeleton, merge forkhash, PR #1951
- The underlying blockchain (chain) and Trie (state) databases have been upgraded from Level 6 to Level 8, PR #1949
- Activated Sepolia DNS discovery, PR #2034
This client release comes with various last specification updates for the Merge to conform with the execution engine API spec as defined in the "Ballast" v1.0.0-alpha.9 pre-release of the execution API, also see the general Merge (aka "Paris" HF) execution specs.
- Various
eth_
methods are now available on the engine API endpoint as of Kiln spec v2.1, PR #1855 - Small engine API updates and fixes, PR #1902
- Subsume engine's
INVALID_TERMINAL_BLOCK
intoINVALID
response, PR #1919
The client now supports optimistic (Beacon) sync where blocks are downloaded in reverse from the announced trusted head. This allows for a practically viable sync process in combination with a consensus client when running the client in an execution-consensus-client-combination setup on a Merge test network.
See PR #1878 for the implementation and PR #1858, PR #1861 and PR #1863 which prepare the ground with some (larger scale) preparator refactor for the implementation.
With this release our tx pool grows into a still simple but full-grown and base-feature-complete pool by adding all sorts of validation checks to ensure validity with consensus, see PR #1852. This is another substantial step towards fullfilling the requirements for acting as an active block-producing client in an Ethereum network. Validation checks - like e.g. "tx nonce is greater than sender's current nonce" - are now run early on when a tx is send via RPC eth_sendRawTransaction
and feedback (and eventual rejection of the tx) is provided at the point of submission. This allows for building valid blocks when acting as a block producer.
- Execution API: Added missing tx fields to
getBlockByHash
RPC method, PR #1881
- Allow
forkchoiceUpdated
method to properly work on a reorg if a previous block was sent asheadBlockHash
, PR #1820 - Fix to have
newPayload
properly handle already existing payload, PR #1824 - client/engine: add ability to add blocks to blockchain without setting the head (faster engine calls!), PR #1827
- chain: safer closing to not cause db corruption during shutdown while handling engine requests, PR #1827
- CLConnectionManager: starts on first
updateStatus
in caseMergeForkIdTransition
isn't reached before merge (Goerli shadow fork scenario), PR #1827 eth_call
bug fix on specificdata
value cases, PR #1830- engine: Adds
remoteBlocks
to handle storing blocks with unknown parent in case fcU sets head to it when parent is later given tonewPayload
, PR #1830 - Moved the TxPool to
FullEthereumService
(internal refactor for merge preparation), PR #1853
This release fully supports the Merge Kiln testnet v2
complying with the latest Merge specs. You can use this release to sync with the testnet, combining with a suited consensus client (e.g. the Lodestar client). See Kiln instructions to get things going! 🚀
- New engine API endpoints, PRs #1565 and #1712
engine_newPayloadV1
(before:engine_executePayloadV1
)engine_forkchoiceUpdatedV1
engine_getPayloadV1
- New engine API endpoint, PR #1750
exchangeTransitionConfigurationV1
(sets and returns the transition configuration parameters)
- Engine API (RPC): Renamed
message
tovalidationError
, PR #1565 - Engine API (RPC): Allowed ws and http on the same port, PR #1565
- Engine API (RPC): Respect message ordering in forkchoiceUpdated, PR #1565
- Engine API (RPC): Rename
coinbase
tofeeRecipient
as perv1.0.0-alpha.5
spec, PR #1565 - Engine API (RPC): Support for jwt based auth through both http/websocket protocols, PR #1751
- Engine API (RPC): Tests for new Engine API endpoints, PR #1727
- Geth genesis files: Use
mergeForkBlock
if provided, PR #1565 - Execution module refactor: decoupling from
FullSync
module to prepare for a post-Merge execution/sync separation, PR #1663 - Added terminal block validation in
newPayload
andforkchoiceUpdated
methods from Engine API, PR #1797 - Validate block safe hash on
forkchoiceUpdated
, PR #1804 - Validate finalized block hash on
forkchoiceUpdated
, PR #1803 - More explicit Merge and CL connection logging with a proper panda bear icon and stuff, see PRs #1800, #1805 and #1808
- RPC Server: Added
rpcCors
option to specify CORS for rpc server, PR #1762 - RPC Server: New default ports for engine (
8551
) (HTTP-RPC and WS) and general RPC (8545
), PR #1775 - Miner: unlock with file PK (do not use in a production setup for security reasons!), PR #1790
- Various sync stability improvements, PR #1781
- More sophisticated Block/Header fetcher reorg handling, PR #1792
- Added new
--startBlock
CLI option to allow for restarting sync on an older block, PR #1807 - JSON RPC:
eth_getBlockByNumber
method returns array of tx object when asked, PR #1801
- Geth genesis files: Minor
baseFeePerGas
related fix and other improvements, PRs #1720 and #1741 - Added
mixHash
to RPC block results (sorry, forgotten 😋), PR #1791 - Fixed frequent
Error handling message
error in tx poo, PR #1793 - Handle partial results in multi-peer safe manner, PR #1802
This release adds receipt and log saving functionality to the client. There has been a new database infrastructure laid out in PR #1556 for data, caching and indexes.
A new ReceiptsManager
handles receipt and log saving and lookup, along with the txHash -> [blockHash, txIndex]
index that is limited by --txLookupLimit
(default = 2350000 blocks = about one year, 0 = entire chain).
Enable with --saveReceipts
and use with --rpc to enable eth_getLogs
, eth_getTransactionReceipt
and eth_getTransactionByHash
endpoints.
The client now supports the new Sepolia testnet, which is a PoW network intended to replace the ropsten
network, see PR #1581.
A client connecting to the Sepolia network can be started as follows:
ethereumjs --network=sepolia
The RPC calls call
, getBalance
, getCode
, getStorageAt
, getTransactionCount
, and estimateGas
up till now only supported being called with the latest
tag. This has been updated in PR #1598 and it is now possible to use past block numbers for the various calls.
- Fixed browser build and libp2p sync, PR #1588
- Fixed error logging stack trace output, PR #1595
- Fixed broken dependency in webpack where node's constants package isn't being polyfilled by webpack 5, PR #1621
- Fixed
mainnet
consensus bug from block4,993,075
(byzantium
) where a tx goes OOG but refunds get applied anyways (thanks @LogvinovLeon for reporting! ❤️), PR #1603
This client release comes with experimental Merge support as specified in EIP-3675
commit 504954e3 and the Engine API v1.0.0-alpha.2. This is the spec snapshot used for the Merge Interop event in Greece which happened in October 2021.
For the courageous there are instructions here on how to connect the EthereumJS client with a Lodestar Eth 2.0 client and produce blocks together. Note that specifications are changing quickly though and a new testnet is already planned, so this is not guaranteed to work.
Merge related work has been done in the following PRs (all pretty extensive):
- PR #1509 (first Engine API steps, JSON RPC block parameter alignments, HF-by-TD fixes)
- PR #1512 (continued Engine API,
--rpcEngine
CLI option, Taunas testnet, temporary eth_getLogs RPC mockup) - PR #1530 (dedicated Engine API port, Pithos testnet, Docker)
The 1,230,833 block consensus bug we had in the v0.1.0
release has been fixed in the VM dependency (see PR #1516 and PR #1524), so sync on mainnet
will now continue from this block onwards.
The "Mainnet sync" adventure now comes to a halt though around the Shanghai dDoS attacks mainnet blocks ranging from 2,286,910 to 2,717,576 where we realize that our VM is just not optimized enough to hold through these various edge case scenarios.
We'll take this occasion and do some sustainable performance work on the VM, where everyday developer use cases will likely also benefit. This will realistically take some months time though. See Issue #1536 and related issues if you are interested or want to join the effort.
- New
--helprpc
help for CLI to print all available RPC commands, PR #1505 - New
--rpcDebug
option to log complete RPC calls on log level debug (i.e. --loglevel=debug), PR #1519 - Websocket support for the RPC server, PR #1508
- Allow Geth genesis files with code and storage, PR #1530
- New
--extIP
CLI option to set an external RLPx IP, PR #1530 - Logfile and log rotation support (
--logFile
,--logLevelFile
,--logRotate
and--logMaxFiles
options), PR #1530 - New
--executeBlocks
CLI option to re-run blocks already synced (for debugging purposes), PR #1538 - Allow
baseFeePerGas
andterminalTotalDifficulty
for Geth genesis files, PR #1509 - Improved sync stability in certain cases, PR #1543
- New debug logger for the
Fetcher
for code debugging, can be run withDEBUG=client:fetcher npm run client:start
, PR #1544 - Sync stabilizing
Fetcher
improvements, PR #1545 - Use
RLP
library exposed byethereumjs-util
dependency (deduplication), PR #1549
Heydiho, glad you are here! 😀
After over a year of continued development the EthereumJS team is proud to announce that our client is finally stable, feature-complete (or - let's call it: feature-consistent) and useful in many regards that we have decided to do a first official release! 🌼
There has been such an extensive amount of work done that it would be neither useful nor enlightening to list all associated PRs.
So here are just a few milestones, where the ones before November 2020 happened in
the - now archived - standalone ethereumjs-client
monorepo before we moved the client
to our monorepo
ethereumjs-monorepo:
- Full transition to
TypeScript
, PR #144 and subsequent PRs - Integration with our monorepo CI config, e.g. PR #153
- Full alignment with the latest versions of the
EthereumJS
monorepo libraries (Block
,Tx
,VM
,...), e.g. PR #158 - Integration of the
@ethereumjs/vm
to execute on blocks, PR #1028 - EIP-1459: DNS peer recovery, PR #1070
- Following the VM integration: working down various HF bugs like this one from TangerineWhistle (hardening our VM along the way): PR #1101
- Tip-of-the-chain syncing behavior, PR #1132
- A basic transaction pool, PR #1176
- Upgraded
devp2p
ETH
protocol up to versionETH/66
, PR #1331 LES
protocol v3 and v5 support, PR #1324- Support for
devp2p
snappy compression (RLPx v5), PR #1399 - A simple miner for PoA/clique, PR #1444
- Finalized on
devp2p
message handling support (e.g. by addingNEW_BLOCK
rebroadcast capabilities) to serve as a good network citizen, PR #1458 - Added developer capabilities, e.g. by adding a
--dev
flag to auto-start and prefund a miner, PR #1492
And here we are. 🙂
We joined various ephemeral testnets along the way - like Yolov3
(still remember? 😃) and Calaveras
- and helped find consensus bugs before they reached mainnet
in preparation for the latest forks like london
in conjunction with the other clients.
Now we are ready for the next step and hand this out to you - the community! 🥳
We are eager to see what you will do with this client and how you will use this software, which for the first time in Ethereum's history brings the full Ethereum core protocol stack - complemented by the excellent Lodestar client ChainSafe is developing on the Eth2 side - into the hands of Node.js developers.
We have also updated our README on the client directly before the release which you should take as a concise reference on the currently implemented client capabilities, some usage instructions complemented by various examples, and developer notes.
So thanks to the whole EthereumJS team - including some former team members - for the relentless work on this, and some special thanks to Vinay Pulim, who wrote the initial version of this software and therefore provided the ground for all this subsequent work!
Again: Thank you! ❤️ Exciting times ahead.
0.0.6 - 2020-06-19
After a longer period of stalled development this release brings the EthereumJS
client back
to life respectively a usable state by doing necessary dependency updates and modernizing CI.
It also comes with an updated documentation and user-facing improvements like a more reliable
and better communicated sync mechanism.
Most notable for development is the upgrade of the ethereumjs-devp2p
dependency to v3.0.1
.
The devp2p library is now TypeScript
based and comes with an improved debugging experience
which will be helpful when working on further improving the sync reliability of the client and
hunting for networking bugs.
To ease jumping into the code base there is now a new structure diagram showing the relations between the main components as well as the initialization and message flow.
Dependencies, CI and Docs
- Added Node 12, removed Node 8 on CI runs, updated
level
andethereumjs-common
dependency, PR #111 - Upgraded CI provider to GitHub actions, PR #119
- Updated
ethereumjs-util
tov7.0.2
, PR #129 - Added up-to-date version of the
README
,Outdated
notice for the project summary, PR #114 - Added
JSON-RPC
documentation toREADME
, PR #124 - New high-level structure diagram, PR #134
Bug Fixes and Maintenance
- Fixed tx initialization bug, PR #113
- fix(rpc): Handle rpc request with empty params, PR #122
- Fixed light sync block init bug, PR #127
RPC
test method cleanup, PR #126- Removed old fields
consensus
andfinality
, PR #120
New Features
- Improved sync reliability, PR #133
- Added
eth_blockNumber
RPC method, PR #131 - Added
eth_getBlockTransactionCountByHash
RPC method, PR #125
0.0.5 - 2019-02-12
0.0.4 - 2018-12-30
- Add more RPC endpoints, PR #65, #69, #75, #81
- Add unit tests, PR #70
- Fix error with geth genesis file parser, PR #71
- Update
ethereumjs-common
to 0.6.1, PR #72 - Fix bug with sender status, PR #74
- Add documentation and strict mode to RPC modules, PR #76
- Shutdown gracefully on SIGINT, PR #79
- Add integration tests, PR #82
- Update
ethereumjs-devp2p
to 2.5.1, PR #84 - Refactor syncing to use streams, PR #85
0.0.3 - 2018-10-30
- Update libp2p defaults, PR #63
0.0.2 - 2018-10-26
- Update
ethereumjs-blockchain
to 3.3.1, PR #61
0.0.1 - 2018-10-26
- Initial development release