Release

This release is a huge step towards fully featured beacon chain client. It introduces beacon chain node with minimal implementation of wire protocol and regular sync built on top of it.

In order to try a node use installation guide and run a small chain sample.

Changelog

Spec & tests

• Update consensus to v0.6.1 https://github.com/harmony-dev/beacon-chain-java/pull/129
• Implement SOS-based offsets https://github.com/harmony-dev/beacon-chain-java/pull/132
• Catch up with recent changes in deposit contract https://github.com/harmony-dev/beacon-chain-java/pull/130
• Adopt new state test format and align with v0.6.1 test vectors https://github.com/harmony-dev/beacon-chain-java/pull/112, https://github.com/harmony-dev/beacon-chain-java/pull/136

Optimization

• Revamp SSZ implementation and add incremental hashing https://github.com/harmony-dev/beacon-chain-java/pull/115
• Tune spec caching according to benchmark results

Network

Implement basic network stack https://github.com/harmony-dev/beacon-chain-java/pull/133, including:

• Peer and connection manager
• Minimal wire protocol
• Regular sync with online mode

Tools & CLI

• Node, CLI to run beacon chain node
• Benchmaker, a tool for beacon chain spec benchmarks

This is the first release of Ethereum 2.0 Harmony client, a beacon chain simulator that runs several validators in a single runtime environment. There is a number of configurable parameters that user can play with. To get an advanced information about simulator, check out Beacon chain simulator wiki page.

Spec notes:

• the code is up to date with v0.4.0 spec
• there is a hack around a known off by one issue related to epoch transition: https://github.com/harmony-dev/beacon-chain-java/commit/d6795501829251a343205938c6e930ca721c11b0, the issue is addressed by https://github.com/ethereum/eth2.0-specs/pull/732

Useful links:

• Installation guide