Discovering the Ethereum2 P2P Network

Abstract

Achieving the equilibrium between scalability, sustainability, and security while keeping decentralization has prevailed as the target solution for decentralized blockchain applications over the last years. Several approaches have been proposed by multiple blockchain teams to achieve it, Ethereum being among them. Ethereum is on the path of a major protocol improvement called Ethereum 2.0 (Eth2), implementing Sharding and introducing the Proof-of-Stake (PoS). As the change of consensus mechanism is a delicate matter, this improvement will be achieved through different phases, the first of which is the implementation of the Beacon Chain. As Ethereum1, Eth2 relies on a decentralized peer-to-peer (p2p) network for the message distribution. Up to date, we estimate that there are around 5.000 nodes in the Eth2 main net geographically distributed. However, the topology of this one still prevails unknown. In this paper, we present the results obtained from the analysis we performed on the Eth2 p2p network. Describing the topology of the network, as possible hazards that this one implies.

A Cryptoeconomic Traffic Analysis of Bitcoin’s Lightning Network

“…They found that Ethereum's P2P latencies follow a distribution with a 171ms average and a standard deviation of 76ms. The Ethereum P2P graph is measured and described by Cortes and Bautista [6]. They found that the Ethereum2 P2P graph is a heavily centralized network that exhibits a spoke-hub distribution.…”

“…5 # Generate a random Barabási-Albert graph with 20 nodes 6 G = nx.barabasi_albert_graph(20, 3, seed=seed) 7 nw_gen = NodeWeightGenerator('stake') 8 ew_gen = EdgeWeightGenerator('normal') 9 # use the Barabási-Albert graph as a P2P network 10 net = Network(nw_gen, ew_gen, graph=G, seed=seed) 11 protocol = BroadcastProtocol(net, broadcast_mode='all', seed=seed) 12 # select 4 highest degree nodes to be adversaries 13 adv_nodes = net.get_central_nodes(4, 'degree') 14 # initialize adversary 15 adversary = Adversary(protocol, adversaries=adv_nodes, seed=seed) 16 print(adversary.nodes) 17 # output: [5,0,4,6] Listing 3: Four nodes with the highest degree are set to be adversarial nodes from a random Barabási-Albert graph 2 . Note that by setting the random seed, you can get reproducible results.…”

Can We Run Our Ethereum Nodes at Home?

“…The more accessible it is for users to contribute to the protocol, the more resilient it becomes. Previous works have shown how the ranges of routable nodes participating on the Ethereum network oscillate between the 11.000 for the PoW network [34] and 9.000 for the young PoS beacon chain [4]. However, this can't ensure that all those nodes actively contributed to the consensus.…”

“…It led to considerable growth in decentralized applications and the Web3 space due to its pioneer multipurpose Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) [2] and its dedicated programming language Solidity [3]. With an extended network of more than 10.000 active nodes [4] and its capabilities to process Smart Contracts, it currently handles above 1 million transactions per day from 600.000 active accounts [5]. These characteristics have set the conditions for a solid community of developers and continuous advancements, as well as introducing new technological possibilities.…”

Autopsy of Ethereum's Post-Merge Reward System

“…Ethereum [1] has soundly consolidated in the Web3 and blockchain ecosystem for its widely decentralized network with more than 5.000 active nodes [2], and its multipurpose Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) [3]. Commonly popularized for being the pioneer blockchain able to process Smart Contracts [4], it currently handles above 1 million transactions per day from 600 thousand active accounts [5].…”