# Lodestar 2020

Happy new year! It's been a while since we've given an update on Lodestar, so we figure the new year is a great time to fill the community in on Lodestar's current progress, priorities, and where we'll be headed later in the year.

For those new to the party, Lodestar is a ChainSafe Systems initiative to build Eth2 infrastructure in TypeScript and AssemblyScript.

### Wen testnet? Wen Phase 0?

The question on many people's mind is when Lodestar will be production ready, ready to join in the testnet fun that many other teams have started. The short answer is 'likely months', and the reason is as follows.

Lodestar has been tasked (grant funded) with light client research/prototyping and building developer tooling, specifically as it relates to the browser. While our mandates do not disclude building out a production beacon chain, it means our top priority is not 'to build a production beacon chain to join a testnet', but rather 'to build foundational tooling' especially in the overlap between consumer light clients and full clients.

We also feel this is the area we can bring the most value. Considering that a TypeScript beacon node would likely not be the fastest, smallest, or *est option of the pack, we want to be providing the best return to the community, our grantors, and the ecosystem as a whole. This means focusing our time on what has the most impact, given limited resources. We see light clients, specifically browser-based light clients as critical for the Ethereum ecosystem at large.

To that end, we've been organizing the Light Client Task Force(tm) community calls, and we've been heads down building out the greater Lodestar ecosystem of packages.

Will we stop working on our beacon chain implementation? Hell no. Just realize that there a balance to be had here.

For those dead-set on Lodestar Beacon Chain progress, here is a inexhaustive list of major upcoming tasks required before we can launch:

- [finish 0.9.x spec upgrade](https://github.com/ChainSafe/lodestar/pull/548)
- [finish+integrate discv5](https://github.com/ChainSafe/discv5)
- send+receive chunked responses in req/resp protocol
- update js-libp2p and validate messages before gossiping
- various optimizations(tm)
- merkle-tree-backed beacon state ala [remerkleable](https://github.com/protolambda/remerkleable/)
- shuffling/committee cache

### Lodestar Roadmap - Present and Future

As last year came to a close, we've catalogued the libraries we've built and maintained over the past year. We're currently at [22 packages](https://hackmd.io/CcsWTnvRS_eiLUajr3gi9g) and counting. These cover a wide range, spanning libp2p modules, bls keypair tooling, Eth2 datastructure tooling, and Eth2 consensus libraries.

Looking forward into the year, we have the following high level priorities:
- Prototype/build light client libraries
- Polish existing tooling libraries
- Highlight browser uses of Lodestar tooling
- Productionize Lodestar beacon chain & validator client

#### Prototype/Build Light Client Libraries

Our primary mandate, thus far, have been to prototype and build out light client tooling. We will continue organizing the Light Client Task Force(tm) and will continue to engage with the Eth2 community on light client research and development. Our goals are toward prototyping a light client proof server and building out a browser-ready light client and tools to consume proofs. Stay tuned for some exciting updates (hint: see [remerkleable](https://github.com/protolambda/remerkleable/)) in advancing proof generation / consumption.

#### Polish Existing Tooling

It takes a lot of work to bring software to production. We have high standards, and we want the tools we build to have the upmost ease of use and have assurances that they do what they're supposed to do. To that end, we will be building out more unified and full-featured documentation to introduce newbies and aid veterans alike. We will also be pursuing code audits for all of our libraries by security professionals, which should give some confidence that the lodestar ecosystem can be used safely.

#### Highlight Browser Uses of Lodestar Tooling

Last year, we launched simpleserialize.com to showcase Eth2's serialization standard used in the browser. This year, we plan to exhibit much of our tooling in simple webapps that can act as convenient utilities and provide educational value.

#### Productionize Beacon Chain & Validator Client

We're not forgetting about building out a production-ready beacon chain and validator. We're committed to bundling together the lions share of our software together into a single powerful `lodestar` program.

We have an exciting year ahead of us, and we're honored and blessed to be part of this thriving, unique ecosystem.

### Want to join? Want to contribute?

We're always looking to collaborate, to grow, to better ourselves and the community. If you want to join in the fun, pop in to our [Discord](https://discord.gg/aMxzVcr) and feel free to open issues and PRs on [GitHub](https://github.com/ChainSafe/lodestar). If you'd like to donate to our project, Gitcoin Grants is currently matching donations. [We would love your support!](https://gitcoin.co/grants/79/lodestar-eth20-client)