What is Client Diversity? Why does this keyword affect the survival of Ethereum?

In recent days, the Ethereum community has been constantly buzzing about the keyword "Client Diversity" and the potential risks that await the network in the future. So what is "Client Diversity"? In today's article, let's learn about this keyword and see how important it is to the Ethereum ecosystem!

What is a client?

As usual, to explain a new keyword and understand it, we will break down each small part to make the explanation easier to understand.

TheValidatorParticipate in validating the blockchain network using a consensus mechanismProof-of-Stakewill need to operate based on hardware and software . Hardware is often the same components as our everyday computers, but will certainly have to have higher configuration to meet the processing needs of the network.

As for software, these Validators will need to run a program called Client . Simply put, the Client will be a bridge so that Validators can perform tasks on the blockchain. With Ethereum, Validator must use 2 main types of Client simultaneously, for 2 tasks:

• Consensus Client: this is the software that handles consensus and assigns historical data;
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• Execution Client: this is the software that handles the operational stage, helping to receive transaction requests from users.

What is Client Diversity?

After understanding the Client, we will come to a current outstanding problem of the Ethereum ecosystem. It is a story of decentralization using various forms of software. Client Diversity is roughly understood as a "call" for the community to diversify the use of Client software in blockchain operations.

At the time of writing, the software accounting for the largest proportion in the Consensus category is Prysm with 39%. However, this problem is nothing compared to Geth (Go-ethereum)'s 79% in the Execution category. In mid-January 2024, Geth's dominance rate sometimes reached 85%, causing the Ethereum community to sound the alarm.

Like other aspects of a blockchain, Clients that are not diversified will have many consequences.

Why is the allocation proportion skewed?

First of all, it lies in the difference in effectiveness of the software . It is easy to see that software that is prioritized for use will have faster authentication processing speed, avoiding minor errors and unnecessary risks for the operating unit. Recently, Coinbase also explained why it only uses Geth because this is "the only software that meets the technical standards" of this organization.

The second reason often comes from segment profitsLiquid Staking. The competitive advantage in block processing time will accumulate over time according to the compound interest effect, thereby providing an extremely large yield source. Especially in the context of the Liquid Staking and market segment RestakingStill maintaining a high growth rate, units will want to take advantage of this wave to accumulate advantages for themselves in the future.

The final reason is that there is no specific "movement" to promote Client decentralization . Recent tweets calling for attention on Twitter are largely due to the fear of Geth's density concentration, but in a normal context, a crowd will not be able to be distributed evenly and naturally. Let's ask, if standing in a crowd, how many people would choose to "suffer the loss" to ensure the overall safety of the network?

Implications from Client Centralization

The first risk comes from the fact that network operations can be interrupted if a large portion of the software has problems.

This story has not yet taken place when the 2 Execution Clients are BesutandNethermindencountered errors in January 2024. But it makes the community wonder if the same thing happens to Geth, will the network encounter any serious problems? With the story of Consensus Client,In May 2023, Ethereum failed to complete network validation twice in a row within 24 hours.. The problem at that time was due to an error in Prysm's Consensus Client (Client currently accounts for 39% of the network as mentioned above).

In addition, the Validator being slashed when there is a bug with the Client also has a relatively large economic impact , not only for Liquid Staking units but also for users using these services.

In onepostsTalking about the risks of operating a Client with a high proportion in the network until 2022, author Dankrad Feist emphasized that the case with the strongest impact is "case number 3" - when the network agrees with a invalid block (invalid).

And the damage to a Client with a high proportion will be much greater than for Clients with a low proportion. This is because Clients occupying a high proportion will cause the network to be unable to finalize (freeze past data). When there are 4 consecutive Epochs without Finality, the Inactivity Leak emergency state will be activated.

>> Learn about Finality, Epoch and Inactivity Leak here this paragraph.

And when the Client error is not patched soon, the Inactivity Leak status lasts longer, and the fine for Validators encountering Client errors increases exponentially. This mechanism is to force Validators to quickly return to the correct chain and prevent network attacks.

Side stories

Of course, when there is an attractive "bait" on the topic of "Client Diversity", the Twitter community also quickly has side stories to increase the heat for this keyword.

Some opinions say that Geth's large proportion in the current network arises from conflicts in handling the money stuck in the wallet of the Parity project , the unit that previously operated another Execution Client. , Butencountered problems in 2017and locked up a large amount of ETH.

The founder of Parity isGavin Wood, who later created the blockchain projectPolkadot, decided not to open source code for Parity, causing this Client to gradually die and thereby creating Geth's "dominance" at the present time.

In addition, the Ethereum community also continuously shares posts encouraging running independent nodes and Validators at home (Solo Staker), along with a wave of support for Clients with a low proportion in the network.

Besides, big players participating in the Staking market are also constantly being pressured by the community to change their Client software.True to the nature of the crypto industry, it would be impossible to mention a story that gets a whole community talking without accompanying memes.

Conclusion

So we have learned together about the story of concentration of Client proportion on Ethereum. Hopefully the above article can explain to you your questions about why the Twitter community is so excited about this keyword.

Hopefully we will soon have the opportunity to meet again in new articles!