Updates from the Teams

February 23, 2022

Topic	Collaborators	Updates to date	Looking Forward	Where (and how) the community can help
Stakehouse update	Colfax	Colfax will be handing the torch of StakeHouse to Remy & James, focusing his efforts on his new company gitpoap.io . Gitpoap is a decentralized reputation platform that provides POAPs for project contributions. Expecting to launch in ~3-4 weeks GitPOAP will be partnering with about a dozen Ethereum projects to award all their contributors projects. The platform will also include a 'digital resume' where individuals can show off their contributions This isn't the last stakehouse will see colfax. Staking is still extremely important to him and the stakehouse team is looking forward to utilizing GitPOAP in future projects.	GitPOAP will launch in 3-4 weeks.	Congratulate Colfax on GitPOAP and support all GitPOAP efforts. https://gitpoap.io/#suggest
ETHDenver Update	Remy & James	Remy Highlights schelling point organized by gitcoin, was a lot of fun. talks about positive side of the community, ethereum, public goods, and other projects. meeting our IRL friends. Amazing bonding experience for frens. Lots of talks on DAOs & NFTs. already using POAPs but maybe we'll chat about a few more things. Lots of famous faces too!! Colfax did a UX of staking but there wasn't much more. Areas for improvement in the future. James went into this thinking it would be a much smaller event and it totally exceeded expectations! It was intense!! it's amazing to see how much support and enthusiasm around this entire space. Highlight: work against the mini-dank sharding. a much better idea was created and it's extremely exciting. L2 future & zero knowledge proofs with how they are evolving as well. went to a dappnode talk and that was great to see what their future is. watch the recording. Look at the ETHDenver youtube. middleware technology is a topic for validators. All the different technologies coming up to fit in between all the tools that are being worked on. We'll have to have talks on this in the future.
Stereum Update	David	Upkeep & update challenge 3 is underway. New sign up process to avoid bad actors. Participants will get a POAP and the two winners will each get an NFT Reach out on discord if you have any questions.		Sign up for the upkeep & update challenge. https://stereum.net/update-upkeep-challenge/
Eth-wizard	Remy	New update for client maintenance. New version includes a check for client updates. It will do all necessary checking when a client update is ready and will easily update your validator.		download the new version & support future work! https://github.com/stake-house/eth-wizard
Survey Results	James	There are 2 validator surveys, 1 by James @ prysm and 1 by EF. There are some gaps and oddities in the results but good amount of overlap in data as well. Results reinforce that making staking easier is/should be a focus. Interesting highlights/opportunities: Most prysm responders have been associated with ethereum for >2 years, are considerably technical. BUT ~30% are not very technical so there is definite areas to grow. Emotions around staking runs high. People get very anxious around this (assumption is due to price). Mayb we can lower anxiety by promoting more testnet usage? Lots of people get their information from ethereum.org & the launchpad. Windows usage is low. Partly due to lack of support by clients. Adding windows support may be a great way to lower the bar. in the EF Survey - GUI support wasn't a big priority for those CURRENTLY staking but is a priority for those LOOKING TO stake.		Review the survey and provide any comments! Survey 1: https://prysmaticlabs.notion.site/The-Art-of-Surveys-Lessons-Learned-76765182be324c6f8cf1c3923960480a Survey 2: https://thesquanch.notion.site/Staker-Survey-Results-c5e1ebb5a2c84faa961f6e07709fbb82
DevConnect	Colfax	ETHStaker will be hosting a 3day event during DevConnect - Full details to come. End of the event will be a full day hackathon focused on lowering the technical bar to staking. If you think you're somewhat interested in this topic we encourage you to join us, no experience needed.		look out for DevConnect updates. https://devconnect.org/schedule
Promoting tools		We need to do more to promote the current tools we have and get attention to tools that are in progress. There is no list of all the tools in staking, this could be a great opportunity for someone in the community!

January 19, 2022

Topic	Collaborators	Updates to date
Stakehouse update	Colfax	Monthly meetings going forward. Diving a bit deeper into topics and discussing a broader range of topics.
UI Keygen Tool	Colfax, Rhythnic, The Squanch, others
Wagyu Installer	Remy Roy, Colfax, Jay, Butta	Deep at work in the designs for the installer. Really want to get this done by merge or withdrawls. Would be great if anyone would like to contribute.
Front-end API Update	James He (Prysm)	- keymanager-api standards providing a native way to onboard and offboard from a vc through API, prysm and nimbus implementation of the 3 api endpoints in production, teku, lighthouse, and lodestar will have them in prod soon. - Joaquim Vergès an android tech lead @twitch has been helping with the implementation on the 3 keymanager-apis on web3signer / developing a generic ui for these api endpoints providing a much needed community implementation of a gui for clients who implement these 3 endpoints. -sproul has tested this for lighthouse locally and has worked well! Paul harris from teku tested as well. -3 more keymanager-api endpoints were proposed for managing remote signer public keys. -prysm currently developing web3signer support for end of january
Joaquim demo	Joaquim Vergès	focused on the web3signer. Really important bc clients can delegate work to web3signer. Allows for easy switching between clients as you can have the web3signer in the middle. Modest UI as well no need for CLI. Close to ready, 75% done. Delete flow is in review. Allows for add, Import & delete. UI demo is connected to the web3signer but will work on any standardized API. Can add a lot of keystores at once via a folder upload. Validates against each password. Support uploading of slashing protection. Switching clients: Delete keystores (delete is strong word, working on others) Will allow for migrate your slashing protection during the deletion so you can download the json file Once confirm your validator is offline you can then re import your keystores to use a different client Improvements coming for large scale use. if any client works as the API is defined the UI will work for users. Massive password as a possible update. Think about connecting to two validator clients then doing the two migration paths. Is possible, UI just needs to be very clear on this. Interesting idea. Joaquim might open a new repo for that.
Staking UX	Superphiz	large operators control 70% of beacon chain. not ideal but not what we want to happen. "not the end of the world, we have a lot of opportunity to improve" Centralized exchanges are primarily running prysm, that could be a problem for everyone Should we incentivize minority clients? But block validations should be anonymous, that's the intent. We can only do the measurement we can now due to information on the attestation. Best we can do is preach to home validators. They make around 5k a year in Eth to almost set it and forget it. what we REALLY need is better interfaces for users. Users are intimidated by the command line, which is easy for some to approach but not many. We shouldn't put the know how expectation on users. My personal goal is that i will NOT give up on making it easier until it's a one-click set up and manage. Any one of any skillset should be able to set up their device. Coordination on where someone can help shouldn't be required just jump in and get started. How do you get funding if you need to get started? Grants can be given, reach out ask for help at the ethstaker discord. Also we have a pairing coming up with CLR Grants. CLR is offering a big matching grant from the EF we can fund some incentives to help. Individual devs can sign up for a task and the community will donate with match funding. What if you dont have 32 ETH? Well check out rocketpool for 17.6 ETH holders. similar set up as an at home validator is a great way to contribute to the network. We know centralized exchanges have a lot of control but at home operators can't give up. We are just as powerful as the big exchanges. It's important to get as many at home operators as possible to protect the network. If you're using a large exchange reach out and ask them about the client usage and ask them to reduce prysm usage. You're a customer. this is not a knock on prysm. Prysm is great but continued grow of prysm usage is not healthy for the network. once withdrawls are enabled get away from the large providers. Look at staking at home or staking with rocketpool Tools are coming as well to make this easier. this is OUR network. if you're a value extractor that's ok - be you. the best way to extract value is to build a valuable network so you can extract more value. When the network grows your value grows. even if you think of yourself as a value extractor it's still in your best interest to help with client diversity.
Stereum	Stefan, David	Upgraded to stereum 2. still maintaining, 1 as well. App is being built for the new UI. Tons of options for installation: click install, custom installation where you can choose, import a configuration you've previously set up. Working on completing their demo product now, it's coming close. working on PR & Marketing - HELP THEM OUT!!
EthWizard	Remy Roy	Small update recently to update bugs and small features. Prep work on maintenance features. For automated client updates & checks in the future. Feel free to contribute by cloning the repo and sending over Pull requests.
Kintsugi		Eth staker released some videos on how to setup a node. Lighthouse & geth is what was used. More videos are needed! with different, less known clients. Grants round coming in february, so begin now so you can submit a grant. lay the ground work now.

October 13, 2021

Multi-Client GUIs

Project Name	Collaborators	Updates to Share	Looking Forward	Community Help Needed
UI Keygen Tool	Colfax, Rhythnic, The Squanch, others	Thank you to everyone who tested the tool. Reviewing list of critical updates before audit. Designing the POAP now. Testing is still available. Feedback would be great.	Next up is audit and mainnet launch and review of testing feedback	Please test out Wagyu and share feedback (POAP for meaningful feedback!)
Wagyu Installer	Remy Roy, Colfax, Jay, Butta	Ramping up now that keygen is shipped. Spent time determining minimum key features (eth1 node, eth2 node, etc.). Working with EF on a grant to continue work.	Looking at support for things like automatic updates, and some monitoring for things like number of peers, etc. Designing API that will connect front end to back end. Right now front end and back end node infrastructure is tightly coupled, want to have generic UI
ChainGuardian	Belma	Supporting weak subjectivity states Keeping up to date with latest versions of clients	Will be working on further testing, client version updates, etc.
dAppnode	Lanski	Working on standardizing across clients to open the way for anyone to develop a UI	Options for adding UI for all 4 clients… Waiting for UI implementations on eth2 clients, using standard API to connect UI to any client, use remote signer with UI attached, use Prysm validator client with other beacon nodes
Stereum	Stefan, David	Published the security audit report on their website Explains the vulnerabilities Fixed most of the urgent issues, rolling out non-urgent issues in upcoming releases. New feature to export config of validator clients to import to another service Migration is a bit easier, can back up your server BE CAREFUL of slashing.	Security audit by outside company Mobile app (grafana updates & notifications)	Download stereum launcher and provide feedback to the team.

General Projects

Project Name	Collaborators	Updates to Share	Looking Forward	Community Help Needed
SSV	Alon	2200 validators in the testnet. Only 100 are from blox, the rest are from the community. Growth showed issues with scalability & stability. This is the focus of the teams right now. Around 120 operators with about 100 verified. 15 from dappnode Looking forward to tesnet for stress testing. Pushed back a bit, focusing on stability. EF is working on formal spec for SSV Working with Stereum to integrate SSV Look out for updates on Discord!	First offline event coming up on the 19th, day before Liscon Fireside chat with lido, foundry, dappnode etc. Talk about the future of staking.	Participate in incentivized testnet! See medium article
eth-docker	Yorick	Supports teku rapid sync. All 4 execution clients are supported. Only 5 beaconchain clients currently Grandine is not currently supported.

September 29, 2021

Multi-Client GUIs

Project Name	Collaborators	Updates to Share	Looking Forward	Community Help Needed
UI Keygen Tool	Colfax, Rhythnic, The Squanch, others	Launched first version last week! Currently is hosted on wagyu.gg Already have gotten lots of good feedback from edge cases	Next up is audit and mainnet launch	Please test out Wagyu and share feedback (POAP for meaningful feedback!)
Wagyu Installer	Remy Roy, Colfax, Jay, Butta	Ramping up now that keygen is shipped Spent time determining minimum key features (eth1 node, eth2 node, etc.).	Looking at support for things like automatic updates, and some monitoring for things like number of peers, etc. Designing API that will connect front end to back end Right now front end and back end node infrastructure is tightly coupled, want to have generic UI

General Projects

Project Name	Collaborators	Updates to Share	Looking Forward	Community Help Needed
Validator Monitoring Guide & Demo	Remy	Working on eth-docker integration for Wagyu installer Guide for monitoring and alerting is pretty much done! Ethereum Cat Herders also had a call about monitoring - check it out
SSV	Alon	Working on incentivized testnet! See Medium article		See Medium article to participate in incentivized testnet

Other updates:

• Teku web UI - reach out to Suburban Dad if you would like to help support this work (on EthStaker Discord)

Client Diversity Discussion with Superphiz:

• Choice design of beacon chain - designed to be set up as a protocol rather than a single-client system
• Many of the other common chains have just 1 implementation, which defines how the chain works. The protocol is hardened with multiple clients. Originally had around 9, went down to 4, and is now back to 5ish
• Ideally each of the clients would have a similar amount of client-share. If one client doesn't follow the spec or encounters something not yet written into the spec, and the client drops out of consensus, then only fall to 80 or 75% of network and continue finalizing.
• If 1 client holds majority share of network and that client drops out, the chain could stop finalizing or it could fork.
• As a community, need to actively work on diversifying client share. Network needs a more balanced distribution of clients.
• We should be working on switching people from Prysm to something else like Nimbus, Lodestar, etc. Likely will be hurdles in the future, and need to be sure that the client with a fault doesn't tave the entire network with it.
• Really need to be careful about getting into client "tribalism." The role of the operator is to run the client that the network needs. Right now, the network needs you to run something like Nimbus.
• Prysm just published a statement about client diversity too!
• Superphiz created a new post in EthStaker to start tracking client diversity.
• New development in client diversity - Michael Sproul's fingerprinting. Developed a technique for identifying clients based on block proposals. Originally wanted to catalog network by client type and offer poaps to client switchers, though we're getting a little pushback right now about identifying clients by validators.
• Still encouraging people to change clients for diversity.

September 14, 2021

Multi-Client GUIs

Project Name	Collaborators	Updates to Share	Looking Forward	Community Help Needed
UI Keygen Tool	Colfax, Rhythnic, The Squanch, others	Releasing a alpha executable in an s3 bucket! Supports Mac & Linux. POAP available for testers. Mainnet is disabled and not recommended. Demo today	Working on optimizations & a download site Windows release, security audits	Issues listed on github Download the executable & fill out the google form to provide feedback!
Wagyu Installer	Remy Roy, Colfax, Jay, Butta	Soon work will ramp up on the UI focusing on the KeyGen tool.	Continued UI framework/tool re-evaluation Redesigning system check/status Migrating backend to use EthDocker Supporting upgrading client software in UI Allowing import of validator keys Easy and safe client switching
ChainGuardian	Belma	Supporting weak subjectivity states Keeping up to date with latest versions of clients	Will be working on further testing, client version updates, etc.
dAppnode	Lanski	Working on standardizing across clients to open the way for anyone to develop a UI	Options for adding UI for all 4 clients… Waiting for UI implementations on eth2 clients Using standard API to connect UI to any client Use remote signer with UI attached Use Prysm validator client with other beacon nodes
Stereum	Stefan, David	Updated to support Cent OS Added SSV testnet support, lighthouse is the only beaconchain right now New syncing integration brings sync time down.	Security audit by outside company Mobile app (grafana updates & notifications)	Download stereum launcher and provide feedback to the team.

General Projects

Project Name	Collaborators	Updates to Share	Looking Forward
Validator Monitoring Guide & Demo	Remy	Working on eth-docker integration Guide and demo videoHave been tweaking guides Will shortly release another video on alerting
SSV	Alon	Stabilizing the code is the focus Launched Testnet about 1 month ago, it is working fairly well Learning new information on scaling Continued testing needed	Ability to propose blocks Slacking protection DB
eth-docker	Yorick	Supports teku rapid sync All 4 execution clients are supported Only 5 beaconchain clients currently Grandine is not currently supported.

August 25, 2021

Multi-Client GUIs

Project Name	Collaborators	Updates to Share	Looking Forward
UI Keygen Tool	Colfax, Rhythnic, The Squanch, others	Close to finish line! Finished UX Review and made updates based on feedback from testing users Had planning session to automatically bundle all dependencies alongside the application Revamped contributor section (thanks Mike), and continued tweaking UI	Additional UX review testing tweaks add support for non-Linux OS make app production-ready handle installing missing dependencies, additional language requirements and clarity for education more testing on testnets and audits
Wagyu Installer	Remy Roy, Colfax, Jay, Butta	Jay continued to lead UI work had re-design meeting for System Overview Page (what is the most important info to share with users about their validators?) will be meeting to discuss migration to ethdocker	Continued UI framework/tool re-evaluation redesigning system check/status migrate backend to use EthDocker supporting upgrading client software in UI allowing import of validator keys easy and safe client switching
ChainGuardian	Belma	Supporting weak subjectivity states keeping up to date with latest versions of clients	Will be working on further testing, client version updates, etc.
dAppnode	Lanski	Working on standardizing across clients to open the way for anyone to develop a UI	Options for adding UI for all 4 clients… Waiting for UI implementations on eth2 clients, using standard API to connect UI to any client, use remote signer with UI attached, use Prysm validator client with other beacon nodes
Stereum	Stefan, David	Fully featured, able to be used on Mainnet now! Recently disabled the Pyrmont Testnet and included support for Cent OS	Mobile App (under heavy development) - looking to release in a few weeks Config import/export of keys Local Block Explorer, peer status, sync status, etc. Would like to also work on client switching (would have to re-install to switch right now)

General Projects

Project Name	Collaborators	Updates to Share	Looking Forward
Validator Monitoring Guide & Demo	Remy	Guide and demo videoHave been tweaking guides, will shortly release another video on alerting
SSV	Alon	Launched Testnet about 1 month ago, it is working fairly well Have identified a few fixes to implement Have some independent operators and staking services participating Have been releasing 1 - 2 versions per week

August 11, 2021

Multi-Client GUIs

Project Name	Collaborators	Updates to Share	Looking Forward
UI Keygen Tool	Colfax, Rhythnic, The Squanch, others	Close to finish line! Rhythnic created progress bar network selector clarification added to UI new UX Feedback	Additional UX review testing and tweaks add support for non-Linux OS make app production-ready handle installing missing dependencies additional language requirements and clarity for education more testing on testnets and audits
Wagyu Installer	Remy Roy, Colfax, Jay, Butta	Jay joined, helping with the audit of React. Created many actional items to improve architecture and collaboration. Jay working on restructuring and dev tools	Continued UI framework/tool re-evaluation redesigning system check/status migrate backend to use EthDocker supporting upgrading client software in UI allowing import of validator keys easy and safe client switching
ChainGuardian	Belma	Supporting weak subjectivity states keeping up to date with latest versions of clients	Will be working on further testing, client version updates, etc.
dAppnode	Lanski	Working on standardizing across clients to open the way for anyone to develop a UI	Options for adding UI for all 4 clients… Waiting for UI implementations on eth2 clients, using standard API to connect UI to any client, use remote signer with UI attached, use Prysm validator client with other beacon nodes
Stereum		Have GUI, but no client switching yet	Will be joining next call on August 25, will do overview of Stereum then

General Projects

Project Name	Collaborators	Updates to Share	Looking Forward
Validator Monitoring Guide & Demo	Remy	Guide and demo video

July 28, 2021

Project Name	Collaborators	Updates to Share	Looking Forward
DAppNode/Avado	Lanski, et al	Fully working for Prysm	Primary hurdle is client UIs, key generation, ongoing discussions with client teams
Wagyu Installer	Colfax, Remy, Butta	EthDocker integration in progress	Outlining more granular roadmap of remaining steps, key importing, UX review and iterations
Wagyu Key Gen	Colfax, Remy, Butta	Mostly feature complete	Progress bar, UX review, user testing
Node Factory/Chain Guardian	Marin, et al	Single client testing underway on testnets	More testing of multi-client support on testnets, metrics, adding fallback of beacon nodes
Stereum	stefa2k, daGscheid	Remote install working for multiple clients	Will join for future call

July 14, 2021

Project Name	Collaborators	Updates to Share	Looking Forward
UI Keygen Tool	Colfax, Sam (testing)	Working on loading state, sent out to others for UX feedback, created additional issues on things that need work (on GitHub)	Host wider UX review. Could post request for support on EthStaker
Wagyu Installer	Remy Roy	Have been working on EthDocker integration, hit a few roadblocks w/ integration. Also working on GitCoin/EthStaker-related items	Looking to complete Eth Docker integration in the next few weeks
Start/Stop Button	Grasponcrypto, RamiRond	Colfax worked with RamiRond, merged Start/Stop button into Wagyu installer	Complete
Goerli Eth Bot	Colfax	Made existing EthStaker Goerli Eth bot generic, on StakeHouse GitHub	Complete
Avado/DAppNode Multi-Client Support	Colfax	Ongoing conversation about what needs there will be, nothing specific to report. Check in with Colfax if interested in supporting	Initial exploration
Eth2xk8s	Ching-Yi	Tested the latest build of all clients and bumped the versions	Currently working on supporting persistent volumes, and redesigning some help configuration and data migration
Utility Scripts Repo	Colfax	Starting w/ NFT Distribution Script	Looking to get general utility script Repo set up for people to share their scripts with the community
EthStaker Support	RemyRoy	Wrote guide on alerting with Prometheus for people that need to monitor their disk space. EthStaker moderator!	N/A

June 30, 2021

Project Name	Collaborators	Updates to Share	Looking Forward
UI Keygen Tool	Colfax, Sam (testing)	Made some progress on UI tweaks	Goal is to have shareable video demo soon, then have detailed UX review, then look to testing/auditing
Wagyu Installer	Remy Roy	Have been working on EthDocker integration, hit a few roadblocks w/ integration. Also working on GitCoin/EthStaker-related items	Looking to complete Eth Docker integration in the next few weeks
Start/Stop Button	Grasponcrypto, RamiRond	Have been doing family stuff past few weeks. Could check with RamiRond to see what he has done for start/stop buttons	Work in progress pull request
Goerli Eth Bot	Colfax	No updates yet	Get it working on relevant Discord
Avado/DAppNode Multi-Client Support	Colfax	Something we’re just getting started looking into	Initial exploration
Eth2xk8s	Ching-Yi	Tested the latest build of all clients and bumped the versions	Currently working on supporting persistent volumes, and redesigning some help configuration and data migration
Utility Scripts Repo	Colfax	Starting w/ NFT Distribution Script	Looking to get general utility script Repo set up for people to share their scripts with the community

Previous notes below (outdated)

Previous Statuses:

• Keygen tool - Colfax
• ETH2 Validator Wizard, Wagyu Installer, Back-End Eth Docker Tool - RemyRoy
• Wagyu Start/Stop Button - Grasponcrypto
• Reddit POAP bot - Bad_Investment
• Stop/Start All Buttons and Wagyu Testing - RamiRond
• K8s integration -- Ching-Yi
• Unified interface for back-end -- Butta
• Wagyu status indicators -- Sean
• Graffiti Drawing Publicizing + Hodlercon - Superphiz

Additional priorities not yet in-flight:

• Validator Quick-Sync Service
• Host visualization for Eth2 Client distribution

Project idea list:

• Public GitHub of bug disclosures/past incidents in all clients
• A simple tool to help anyone configure and start using key-based authentication for SSH