This is the main repository for the sharding implementation of the go-ethereum client by [Prysmatic Labs](https://prysmaticlabs.com). For the original, go-ethereum project, refer to the following [link](https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum).
Before you begin, check out our [Sharding Reference Implementation Doc](https://github.com/prysmaticlabs/geth-sharding/blob/master/sharding/README.md). This doc serves as the single source of truth for our team, our milestones, and details on the different components of our architecture.
To get started with running the project, follow the instructions to initialize your own private Ethereum blockchain and geth node, as they will be required to run before you can become a collator or a proposer.
The `alloc` portion specifies account addresses with prefunded ETH when the Ethereum blockchain is created. You can modify this section of the genesis to include your own test address and prefund it with 100ETH.
Now, save the passphrase you used in the geth node into a text file called password.txt. Then, once you have this private geth node running on your local network, we will need to generate test, pending transactions that can then be processed into collations by proposers. For this, we have created an in-house transaction generator CLI tool.
Work in Progress. To track our current draft of the tx generator cli spec, visit this [link](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YohsW4R9dIRo0u5RqfNOYjCkYKVCmzjgoBDBYDdu5m0/edit?usp=drive_web&ouid=105756662967435769870).
This will extract 100ETH from your account balance and insert you into the SMC's collator pool. Then, the program will listen for incoming block headers and notify you when you have been selected as an eligible collator for a certain shard in a given period. Once you are selected, the collator will request collations created by proposer nodes. We will need to run a proposer node concurrently in a separate terminal window as follows:
Proposers are tasked with processing pending transactions into blobs within collations. They are responsible for submitting proposals (collation headers) to collators currently assigned to a period along with an ETH bid.
Collators then subscribe to incoming proposals and fetch the collation headers that offer the highest ETH deposit. Once a collator issues a commitment to a certain proposal, the proposer can be confident the collator will download the body. After this countersigning occurs, the collator can add the collation header to the Sharding Manager Contract.
The Sharding Manager Contract is built in Solidity and deployed to the geth node upon launch of the client if it does not exist in the network at a specified address. If there are any changes to the SMC's code, the Golang bindigs must be rebuilt with the following command.
Excited by our work and want to get involved in building out our sharding releases? Our [Sharding Reference Implementation Doc](https://github.com/prysmaticlabs/geth-sharding/blob/master/sharding/README.md) has all you need to know in order to begin helping us make this happen. We created this document as a single source of reference for all things related to sharding Ethereum, and we need as much help as we can get!
You can explore our [Current Projects](https://github.com/prysmaticlabs/geth-sharding/projects) in-the works for the Ruby release. Each of the project boards contain a full collection of open and closed issues relevant to the different parts of our first implementation that we use to track our open source progress. Feel free to fork our repo and start creating PR’s after assigning yourself to an issue of interest. We are always chatting on [Gitter](https://gitter.im/prysmaticlabs/geth-sharding), so drop us a line there if you want to get more involved or have any questions on our implementation!
Now you should have a remote pointing to the `origin` repo (geth-sharding) and to your forked, go-ethereum repo on Github. To commit changes and start a Pull Request, our workflow is as follows:
- Push to your remote `git push YOURNAME collations-pool`
- Go to the [geth-sharding](https://github.com/prysmaticlabs/geth-sharding) repository on Github and start a PR comparing `geth-sharding:master` with `go-ethereum:collations-pool` (your fork on your profile).
- Add a clear PR title along with a description of what this PR encompasses, when it can be closed, and what you are currently working on. Github markdown checklists work great for this.