markodayan - Final Update

# markodayan - Final Update This is the final update for my [Holon](https://github.com/markodayan/holon) project. Holon is a software suite that runs alongside an Ethereum full node and collects and proccesses data to produce insight about rollup activity on Ethereum. ## Current Status Report The main goal with this project is to produce a software suite fully capable of performing highly specific data collection and analysis to produce insights around rollup activity on Ethereum. The motivation for building this software is rooted in a desire to produce data-rich insights based on the highly-specific context of rollup systems. These goals can be achieved with the modular approach being leveraged in this software suite that is designed to perform highly-specific processing of block information pertaining to rollup solutions. The project is in its infancy stage, but the core decisions around architecture and technologies being utilised are mostly finalised (e.g. databases, caches, messaging protocols being used). There are many other components and sub-processes that are currently being worked on. ## Services provided by Holon As Holon is designed to be a specialised software suite delivering analytics and insights about various rollup solutions, there are various core features that aiming to be provided such as providing data like: - Calldata-related information such as transaction batches (including metrics around their size, L1 publication costs, bandwidth burdens on L1). - State root proposals submitted to rollup contracts on L1. - Proof-related messages. - Withdrawal/Deposit messages. - Blob transaction utilisation by rollup solutions (including blobspace distribution leveraged by calldata and proof-related information). Fundamentally, these are some of the insights that we can derive by inspecting and processing rollup-related transactions made to L1. In addition to producing these insights, Holon also intends to provide features like: - Historical analysis of rollup-related metrics. - Aggregated metrics and comparisions between different rollup solutions. - The ability to toggle which rollups you want to acquire insights about. ## Current System Architecture Below is a system diagram of the software suite called Holon that is designed to run alongside an Ethereum full node: <div style='display: flex; justify-content: center;'> <image src='https://storage.googleapis.com/rollup-research/holon-arch-2.png'> </div> As you can see from above, the architecture leverages multiple containers that together contribute to the functionality of the service. ## Progress Report As mentioned above, the project is currently in its infancy stage, but the system architecture is mostly implemented and being worked upon. At the present moment only Optimism's optimistic rollup is being tested and collecting data such as state root proposals and calldata publication transactions but insights have yet to be produced. The focus has been on architecture for the most part but as development work has been slowly producing the reliable behaviour required, this is due to make the implementation of the functional requirements very simple and intuitive. Please refer to this video here for a detailed presentation about the current state of the project: [Holon Presentation (16 minutes)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m94kB8SxO4U&t=4s) ## Self Evaluation My experience with the Ethereum Protocol Fellowship has been a fantastic experience, ranging from: - Getting knee-deep into studying various rollups (and spinning up various L1 and L2 node configurations). - Helping debug issues together with Optimism devs around the dockerised Optimism node. - Conceptualising this project and embracing all the challenges it brings with it. - Meeting and consulting with all kinds of awesome people about the wonderful world of rollups, distributed systems, mechanism design and beyond. One of the most important lessons I learnt is to be responsible and organised as well as being dedicated to the work you are trying to do. In addition to that, leverage all opportunities to communicate, ask questions and get feedback from others - even if you aren't entirely comfortable you must try. I also learnt a lot from my peers involved in the program, not just in the technical sense related to their project, but also in observing how I can better communicate and engage in a collaborative environment. I would just like to firstly thank Mario and Josh for being so active and approachable and really running this program with dedication, I always felt like I could approach you guys and appreciated the genuine interest had in my project and thoughts and effort made to assist me. I would also like to thank Barnabé Monnot for always being able to make time to discuss various topics and offer useful feedback. Lastly I would like to thank my peers that were involved in the program, the sheer variety of work produced and insights shared were eye-opening and I will certainly be observing future work coming from all of you. Thank you all for sharing this experience with me, and I look forward to all of us working together to collectively slay Moloch.