THE DEVELOPMENT OF
stereum
This page is constantly updated to reflect our past & current work on Stereum and is supposed to give you an idea from where we are coming and where we are currently heading to. If there is something you personally think should be on here or is a feature you miss, check out our Discord and chat with our team!
We are always interested in hearing our users opinions and ideas.
INOCULATION PHASE
Rocklogic’s founder Stefan Kobrc starts working on the ETH Docker Composer for his own personal use. After having taken a chance on a development grant the ETH Foundation decided to support his efforts. Rocklogic is able to hire the first team member for the Stereum project.
The Ethereum 2 Docker Composer ends up supporting 5 Consensus Clients (Prysm, Lighthouse, Teku, Nimbus & Lodestar) and 1 Execution Client (Geth).
Stereum vision is first conceived and in Q1 2021, the newly formed & growing Stereum team decides to make it its mission to lower the technical bar to setting up an Ethereum Node under the assumption, that if Ethereum truly works, at some point everyone will need a node in some compacity. The team decided: Stereum’s goal is to keep the network decentralized and neutral by giving as many people as possible a way to participate in Ethereum on a network level.
STEREUM 1.0
GUI
-) Enable the user to use the same
feature set as with the CLI through a
WEB client.
-) Create a service-Dashboard, that
displays the status of services, grants
basic service control and shows logs
of service
-) Create a validator-dashboard, that
displays the status of validator keys
and enables import, deactivation and
voluntary exit.
-) Create, design & form a user-friendly
experience for beginners and experts.
AUTO UPDATE
-) Check for updates automatically, displays them on the WEB-UI AND, if so wished, installs it automatically
FAST SYNC
-) Use a Stereum Node that backups the blockchain database every day to enable a fast synch option on installation, by receiving the backuped database from the stereum node
MOBILE APP
-) Create a Mobile App that allows you to check status of server including information about the services running & notifies about updates
-) Receive Grafana notifications on the app
-) Develop and build up a backend on the Stereum-Server to send out information and receive them on the mobile app.
-) Encrypt and make the information unreadable for the backend
-) Make it possible to bundle and show multiple owned servers on the app
CONFIG IMPORT & EXPORT
-) Make it available to the user to import & export his configuration, with plans for it to include the Slashing-Database and Validator-Accounts – alerting the user with UI elements of possible consequences
LINUX SUPPORT
-) Provide install packages for all major GNU/Linux distributions supporting all features of the Windows and macOS installers.
BLOCK EXPLORER
-) Make beaconcha.in installable
-) Make it bindable to a public IP
AUDIT BY SBA RESEARCH
Thanks to the helpful guys at sba-research we had found some important security vulnerabilities that we had left in the 1.6 and earlier versions of Stereum. With the releases 1.7 and 1.8 we had already fixed most of the bugs with medium severity and above. After they were fixed, the public was able to see them on our github page.
In 2021 the Stereum got to celebrate the win of the “Austrian Blockchain Award 2021” in the category “Non-Profit” for their work on the Ethereum Node Setup & their commitment to publish the code as OpenSource Public Good.
STEREUM 2.0
NEW ARCHITECTURE
-) No more web-cc docker container, the launcher will take care of ALL the UI.
-) Pragmatic use of Ansible, right now we use Ansible for everything.
-) Automated tests
-) Setup on a service-basis, not a use-case basis. Right now it’s only possible to choose from predefined docker-compose, Stereum 2.0 will make it possible to select all services independently and also provide users with recommended setups with preselected services depending on the user’s use-case.
UI REDESIGN
-) User Interface redesign fitting for the new 2.0 version of Stereum
-) Design with a focus on usability & scalability to reflect modularity of Ethereum
-) Touchscreen support compatible
CLIENT SWITCH
-) Seamless & simple way to switch between clients in case of client diversity issues/client network issues/client bugs.
EXPRESS INSTALLATION
-) Enable the user to select the use-case of the node at time of setup, which will be split up in:
-
-
-
- Testnet
- Staking
- SSV
- (& L2s)
-
-
-) After selecting the use case Stereum Setup will select the services automatically and randomly according to client diversity metrics.
SWITCH NETWORK
-) Convert a testnet Stereum Node to a mainnet Stereum Node in a few clicks.
-) Try the benefits of staking on testnet and when feeling confident enough switch to mainnet with the same settings (Graffiti, linked mobile phone, etc.).
EXTENDED EXECUTION CLIENT SUPPORT
-) Integration of additional execution clients clients (OpenEthereum, Nethermind, Erigon, Besu) to ensure more diversity among them.
-) Plan is to integrate 2 out of the 4, making it a total of 3 (including geth) supported execution clients on Stereum.
SLASHING PROTECTION ON KEY IMPORT
-) Perform different checks when a user imports an validator:
- Was the validator key attesting in the last epoch(s)?
- Is this validator registered on any SSV?
-) In any suspicious case the user needs to confirm to import with a warning and explanation on how to avoid getting slashed.
NAMING VALIDATORS
-) Be able to name validators and not only have the public key as an identifier
-) One the most popular feature request we received so far.
LANGUAGE SUPPORT
-) Offer translations & language support for the software & website in the following languages:
GERMAN
PORTUGESE
SPANISH
FRENCH
ITALIAN
RUSSIAN
JAPANESE
FARSI
MANDARIN
Making use of bounties, we will offer 100 xDAI for each translation (separate for website and software), resulting in 18 bounties and a total of xDAI 1800.
If you are interested in helping us out, write an email to us at: stereum@stereum.net or contact ! daGscheid#8703 on Discord.
-) Make the particpation in the SSV Network a selectable option for all supported client setups
-) Adapting to new versions & features of Blox SSV
-) Add Grafana dashboards to view metrics of SSV service
-) Blox SSV service focused setup (no validator service of client teams, optional geth)
-) Advanced ssv key management:
- Automated generation of operator keys
- Including operator keys in config import/export process
- Migrate operator keys to new node
- Register operator & validators (also including changing name, keys, operator fees)
-> Using Stereum app & MetaMask (interacting with smart contract)
-> Using official ssv.network website
-) Overview of validator keys staking on this operator with various information
(depending on availability of API)
MISC.
- Grouping validators (requested feature by users)
- Strengthen stability by further implementing automated integration testing, beneficial for testing execution/consensus client compatibility
- Mobile app enhancements:
- Send graphs with alerts
- Pre-configured alerts in grafana for mobile app
- Securit audit of refactoring & additional features as well as mobile app
- Further focus on service integration for not incentivised efforts
- Embedded video tutorials in Stereum Launcher
- Update manager: update services (e. g. execution/consensus clients) without updating Stereum itself