Lighthouse v3.1.0 [DRAFT RELEASE NOTES]

Summary

This high-priority release contains an important fix to ensure that Lighthouse does not attempt to produce invalid blocks. Furthermore, it improves block production efficiency, thereby increasing the likelihood of a Lighthouse-produced block being included in (and rewarded by) the canonical chain.

We recommend all mainnet users update before the Bellatrix upgrade on Sept 6, 2022, 11:34:47am UTC. Testnet users should upgrade at their next convenience.

Notable changes include:

• Improved handling of offline EEs during sync (#3428)
• Optimisations to block production (#3312)
• Improvements to how builder-enabled VCs interact with non-builder BNs (#3488)
• Easier recovery from EE consensus faults (#3498)
• Log suggested fee recipient addresses in the VC (#3526)

Merge Reminder

The Ethereum mainnet network will upgrade to proof-of-stake on or around the 15th of September 2022. Before that, the Beacon Chain will perform the "Bellatrix" upgrade on Sept 6, 2022, 11:34:47am UTC.

Users do not have until Sept 15th to be "ready for the merge", rather they must be ready by Sept 6th. There is less than a week before users must be merge ready. See Merge Migration for more information.

Breaking Changes

Breaking Change: Database Migration

There is one database migration in this release: v12 (#3312).

Older database versions will automatically upgrade to the latest version without user intervention.

Downgrading requires the user to use the lighthouse db tool. See the Database Migrations documentation for detailed instructions.

Breaking Change: Keystore API

Lighthouse will now return readonly: true rather than readonly: null on the GET /eth/v1/keystores endpoint. This does not affect any other behaviour beyond that return value. We do not expect this behaviour to have an adverse impact on users.

Update Priority

This table provides priorities for which classes of users should update particular components.

User Class	Beacon Node	Validator Client
Staking Users	High Priority	High Priority
Non-Staking Users	High Priority	–-

The Beacon Node may be updated without the Validator Client, however both components must be updated to support the merge. A validator client running a pre-v3.0.0 release will not produce blocks after the Bellatrix upgrade.

See Update Priorities for more information about this table.

All Changes

• v3.1.0 (#3525)
• Log fee recipients in VC (#3526)
• Separate committee subscriptions queue (#3508)
• Docker builds in GitHub actions (#3523)
• Harden slot notifier against clock drift (#3519)
• Add more logging for invalid payloads (#3515)
• Reset payload statuses when resuming fork choice (#3498)
• Validator registration request failures do not cause us to mark BNs offline (#3488)
• Refactor op pool for speed and correctness (#3312)
• More merge doc updates (#3509)
• Return readonly: false for local keystores (#3490)
• Enable block_lookup_failed EF test (#3489)
• don't register exited or slashed validators with the builder api (#3473)
• Pause sync when EE is offline (#3428)
• Update docs for mainnet merge release (#3494)