From 0b95012c2ece8f12436727b4a2c0beb0c024cb4f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Jacek Sieka <jacek@status.im>
Date: Mon, 26 Aug 2024 15:54:59 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] Separate type for unaggregated network attestations

As a complement to
https://github.com/ethereum/consensus-specs/pull/3787, this PR
introduces a `SingleAttestation` type used for network propagation only.

In Electra, the on-chain attestation format introduced in
[EIP-7549](https://github.com/ethereum/consensus-specs/pull/3559)
presents several difficulties - not only are the new fields to be
interpreted differently during network processing and onchain which adds
complexity in clients, they also introduce inefficiency both in hash
computation and bandwidth.

The new type puts the validator and committee indices directly in the
attestation type, this simplifying processing and increasing security.

* placing the validator index directly in the attestation allows
verifying the signature without computing a shuffling - this closes a
loophole where clients either must drop attestations or risk being
overwhelmed by shuffling computations during attestation verification
* the simpler "structure" of the attestation saves several hash calls
during processing (a single-item List has significant hashing overhead
compared to a field)
* we save a few bytes here and there - we can also put stricter bounds
on message size on the attestation topic because `SingleAttestation` is
now fixed-size
* the ambiguity of interpreting the `attestation_bits` list indices
which became contextual under EIP-7549 is removed

Because this change only affects the network encoding (and not block
contents), the implementation impact on clients should be minimal.
---
 specs/electra/beacon-chain.md  | 14 +++++++++++++-
 specs/electra/p2p-interface.md |  5 +++--
 2 files changed, 16 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/specs/electra/beacon-chain.md b/specs/electra/beacon-chain.md
index cb5ee6a7a9..6a79a7012a 100644
--- a/specs/electra/beacon-chain.md
+++ b/specs/electra/beacon-chain.md
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@
     - [`WithdrawalRequest`](#withdrawalrequest)
     - [`ConsolidationRequest`](#consolidationrequest)
     - [`PendingConsolidation`](#pendingconsolidation)
+    - [`SingleAttestation`](#singleattestation)
   - [Modified Containers](#modified-containers)
     - [`AttesterSlashing`](#attesterslashing)
   - [Extended Containers](#extended-containers)
@@ -258,6 +259,17 @@ class PendingConsolidation(Container):
     target_index: ValidatorIndex
 ```
 
+
+#### `SingleAttestation`
+
+```python
+class SingleAttestation(Container):
+    committee_index: CommitteeIndex
+    attester_index: ValidatorIndex
+    data: AttestationData
+    signature: BLSSignature
+```
+
 ### Modified Containers
 
 #### `AttesterSlashing`
@@ -875,7 +887,7 @@ def process_pending_balance_deposits(state: BeaconState) -> None:
             if processed_amount + deposit.amount > available_for_processing:
                 break
             # Deposit fits in the churn, process it. Increase balance and consume churn.
-            else: 
+            else:
                 increase_balance(state, deposit.index, deposit.amount)
                 processed_amount += deposit.amount
         # Regardless of how the deposit was handled, we move on in the queue.
diff --git a/specs/electra/p2p-interface.md b/specs/electra/p2p-interface.md
index 88d14813b3..aa6ed3789d 100644
--- a/specs/electra/p2p-interface.md
+++ b/specs/electra/p2p-interface.md
@@ -54,9 +54,10 @@ The following validations are added:
 
 ##### `beacon_attestation_{subnet_id}`
 
+The topic is updated to propagate `SingleAttestation` objects.
+
 The following convenience variables are re-defined
-- `index = get_committee_indices(attestation.committee_bits)[0]`
+- `index = attestation.committee_index`
 
 The following validations are added:
-* [REJECT] `len(committee_indices) == 1`, where `committee_indices = get_committee_indices(attestation)`.
 * [REJECT] `attestation.data.index == 0`