No empty blocks + Heartbeat

[faddat]

In resource constrained setups, like embedded computers, it may be desirable to tweak the Tendermint settings so that empty blocks are not produced.

- New `--consensus.create_empty_blocks` flag; when set to false, only creates blocks when there are txs or when the AppHash changes
- New `consensus.create_empty_blocks_interval` config option; when greater than 0, will create an empty block after waiting that many seconds

This also makes early stage blockchains grow less rapidly-- when there are no transactions, drastically fewer blocks will be produced, I'm wondering if we can make this a part of config.yml or the like.

• Lower overall resource consumption
• Less SD card wear & tear
• More efficient, less talkative networks

My off-the-cuff thinking on this is that default should be true (as it is now)

For developers serious about embedded chains, ideal settings might be:

--consensus.create_empty_blocks true
consensus.create_empty_blocks_interval 180

Which would make an empty "heartbeat" block every three minutes.

[faddat]

This seems to work for launchpad:

clayd start --consensus.create_empty_blocks true --consensus.create_empty_blocks_interval 180s

I'll try it out on stargate, too.

root@sos ~/.clayd# clayd start --consensus.create_empty_blocks true --consensus.create_empty_blocks_interval 180s
I[2020-12-04|15:00:22.797] starting ABCI with Tendermint                module=main
I[2020-12-04|15:00:28.018] Executed block                               module=state height=1 validTxs=0 invalidTxs=0
I[2020-12-04|15:00:28.031] Committed state                              module=state height=1 txs=0 appHash=CB00C2BE57335C019B26B29D06F87B90D7CFD85128B66EC62C564D6C5D0B8719
I[2020-12-04|15:00:33.081] Executed block                               module=state height=2 validTxs=0 invalidTxs=0
I[2020-12-04|15:00:33.086] Committed state                              module=state height=2 txs=0 appHash=CB00C2BE57335C019B26B29D06F87B90D7CFD85128B66EC62C564D6C5D0B8719
I[2020-12-04|15:03:38.141] Executed block                               module=state height=3 validTxs=0 invalidTxs=0
I[2020-12-04|15:03:38.146] Committed state                              module=state height=3 txs=0 appHash=CB00C2BE57335C019B26B29D06F87B90D7CFD85128B66EC62C564D6C5D0B8719

We save resources and we get a nice reassuring heartbeat every three minutes. Not really sure why the second block came rapidly, but the third took its time like it should have.

[fadeev]

But does that require anything not included with Starport already?

config.yml:

init:
  config:
    consensus:
      create_empty_blocks_interval: "180s"

This does not work the way it supposed to for me on Stargate, but not because it hasn't been propagated to config.toml.

[faddat]

That's correct. I actually just tested with starport and it doesn't work, even if I use flags.

This is a pretty desirable setup for pi-stuff, I will figure it out and check back inm

[faddat]

If you're some significant struggle getting the new version of gaia running and happy I can report that this seems like an issue that is confirmed to starport. When I start a gaia testnet, I can adjust the block times successfully.

The version of Gaia I'm using is here:

https://github.com/cosmos/gaia/tree/cosmoshub-test-stargate-e

What do we know?

• Starport scaffolded chains fail to recognize the config option for the production of empty blocks
  • config.yml -> config.toml
• When using the new version of Gaia, you can adjust as perimeter only once, when the chain is first started.
• scaffolded chains work if fresh genesi, manually started with flags

There's discussion of removing consensus config/flag options at the tendermint repo, here:

tendermint/tendermint#2920

I am not 100% certain that this is that, but it certainly sounds like it could be.

Perhaps changes have been made in tendermint, and new gaia is using a different version of tendermint?

Will check....

[faddat]

Starport based infra when launched using starport:

faddat@Jacobs-MacBook-Pro ~/D/s/b/infra (master) [SIGINT]> infrad start  --consensus.create_empty_blocks_interval 5s
I[2020-12-14|03:29:28.505] starting ABCI with Tendermint                module=main 
E[2020-12-14|03:29:28.947] Error on catchup replay. Proceeding to start State anyway module=consensus err="cannot replay height 439. WAL does not contain #ENDHEIGHT for 438"
I[2020-12-14|03:29:28.947] Starting StateSync service                   module=statesync impl=StateSync
I[2020-12-14|03:29:30.050] Executed block                               module=state height=439 validTxs=0 invalidTxs=0
I[2020-12-14|03:29:30.069] Committed state                              module=state height=439 txs=0 appHash=25713499171089BA53A609235A9DFD76A12DAA54068D729591B4BE6FBA7BC1BA
I[2020-12-14|03:29:31.170] Executed block                               module=state height=440 validTxs=0 invalidTxs=0
I[2020-12-14|03:29:31.184] Committed state                              module=state height=440 txs=0 appHash=9965E6ED1DDEF745CAB43C0EC649504B89C21FE36E010CCEE7CC1F2C475C01CC
I[2020-12-14|03:29:32.270] Executed block                               module=state height=441 validTxs=0 invalidTxs=0
I[2020-12-14|03:29:32.283] Committed state                              module=state height=441 txs=0 appHash=F993019416D1420FC0D792052A87A95A11E81563DCCAFC43CCEEB96D988004F0
I[2020-12-14|03:29:33.370] Executed block                               module=state height=442 validTxs=0 invalidTxs=0
I[2020-12-14|03:29:33.374] Committed state                              module=state height=442 txs=0 appHash=ACF8502542D6E061ED9D7416F633BAB7E511AA09DCDDA7E38EF04521751C4133
I[2020-12-14|03:29:34.451] Executed block                               module=state height=443 validTxs=0 invalidTxs=0
I[2020-12-14|03:29:34.458] Committed state                              module=state height=443 txs=0 appHash=4C81C274C7128B7B0FD6004DD746A6F088DF8E2E896A087F35593FDAE781FD95
I[2020-12-14|03:29:35.555] Executed block                               module=state height=444 validTxs=0 invalidTxs=0
I[2020-12-14|03:29:35.560] Committed state                              module=state height=444 txs=0 appHash=0127650089BF7FF9677C85E5FBD511687B4635D656627E32B1EB1238720BEA93

Infra is making one block per second.

Gaia makes one every five seconds per our request:

faddat@Jacobs-MacBook-Pro ~/.gaia [1]> gaiad start --consensus.create_empty_blocks_interval 5s 
I[2020-12-14|04:05:03.590] starting ABCI with Tendermint                module=main 
I[2020-12-14|04:05:03.833] Starting StateSync service                   module=statesync impl=StateSync
I[2020-12-14|04:05:08.887] Executed block                               module=state height=1 validTxs=0 invalidTxs=0
I[2020-12-14|04:05:08.904] Committed state                              module=state height=1 txs=0 appHash=74953D140C9672A12FFB0A3E18EC557542BF855526AD1F478F107226046E6B07
I[2020-12-14|04:05:13.933] Executed block                               module=state height=2 validTxs=0 invalidTxs=0
I[2020-12-14|04:05:13.946] Committed state                              module=state height=2 txs=0 appHash=191F1EDD9A1B5DE1EE6AE567132BDC14322A35C28C6846DA3DC18A98C38D31BF
I[2020-12-14|04:05:18.964] Executed block                               module=state height=3 validTxs=0 invalidTxs=0
I[2020-12-14|04:05:18.974] Committed state                              module=state height=3 txs=0 appHash=7A35F9F21ABDD4455B8E00829B18DA47FEF78AD13BC53158EB70D02A4E43CB61
I[2020-12-14|04:05:24.015] Executed block                               module=state height=4 validTxs=0 invalidTxs=0
I[2020-12-14|04:05:24.024] Committed state                              module=state height=4 txs=0 appHash=B29BE295B0E4C07484DABA027627DF58434FDBA9CDE639513B58796DDD40D218
I[2020-12-14|04:05:29.049] Executed block                               module=state height=5 validTxs=0 invalidTxs=0
I[2020-12-14|04:05:29.057] Committed state                              module=state height=5 txs=0 appHash=8779BD69B233D51F857F94678427AC3815DB0C51533297EF5639E987A89330B9
I[2020-12-14|04:05:34.102] Executed block                               module=state height=6 validTxs=0 invalidTxs=0
I[2020-12-14|04:05:34.110] Committed state                              module=state height=6 txs=0 appHash=374B3F4C1ADC763CBF433A237502BA2B7B3D1AE73E09E27EF28585667536AF26
I[2020-12-14|04:05:39.152] Executed block                               module=state height=7 validTxs=0 invalidTxs=0

Gaia doesn't let us change this setting after genesis:

faddat@Jacobs-MacBook-Pro ~/.gaia [1]> gaiad start --consensus.create_empty_blocks_interval 30s
I[2020-12-14|04:06:14.640] starting ABCI with Tendermint                module=main 
I[2020-12-14|04:06:15.031] Starting StateSync service                   module=statesync impl=StateSync
I[2020-12-14|04:06:20.162] Executed block                               module=state height=13 validTxs=0 invalidTxs=0
I[2020-12-14|04:06:20.190] Committed state                              module=state height=13 txs=0 appHash=A6419C8B27674B57FF07A418A60D9E00EB1B4DFF89D713FFEC24679FDC7D8759
I[2020-12-14|04:06:25.246] Executed block                               module=state height=14 validTxs=0 invalidTxs=0
I[2020-12-14|04:06:25.259] Committed state                              module=state height=14 txs=0 appHash=9E5279A07550380CC85569CDA677443EBD2568D0548D435A627B0AD2D0CC9A8F
I[2020-12-14|04:06:30.331] Executed block                               module=state height=15 validTxs=0 invalidTxs=0
I[2020-12-14|04:06:30.341] Committed state                              module=state height=15 txs=0 appHash=52A728639C7F964B57276D2BE9D357E26AA16BEA2A46C96C07FA3633CF4DC955

Key learning

If we fire up infrad without starport, we can adjust the empty block interval:

faddat@Jacobs-MacBook-Pro ~> infrad start  --consensus.create_empty_blocks_interval 5s
I[2020-12-14|04:27:28.230] starting ABCI with Tendermint                module=main
I[2020-12-14|04:27:28.540] Starting StateSync service                   module=statesync impl=StateSync
I[2020-12-14|04:27:33.605] Executed block                               module=state height=1 validTxs=0 invalidTxs=0
I[2020-12-14|04:27:33.626] Committed state                              module=state height=1 txs=0 appHash=D309BB999E024DC2F9055B3BD214C2B1EA790FF2D7FF90B9B6DB8FB918D3D00A
I[2020-12-14|04:27:38.643] Executed block                               module=state height=2 validTxs=0 invalidTxs=0
I[2020-12-14|04:27:38.656] Committed state                              module=state height=2 txs=0 appHash=962CB7047449335D8F5D212D7B9528B0C88762DAFF3CD53E811CDB7980BBDBED
I[2020-12-14|04:27:43.683] Executed block                               module=state height=3 validTxs=0 invalidTxs=0
I[2020-12-14|04:27:43.693] Committed state                              module=state height=3 txs=0 appHash=5D3C641E5F38E5F7659BB188BB7EA0AFFDBB348B2B38162E1B1541E20DB7DB5E
I[2020-12-14|04:27:48.729] Executed block                               module=state height=4 validTxs=0 invalidTxs=0
I[2020-12-14|04:27:48.738] Committed state                              module=state height=4 txs=0 appHash=F635161D967705A96867939E3AB880B186C7D7289C7BA9EDA1A90BBB4B2D20D9
I[2020-12-14|04:27:53.789] Executed block                               module=state height=5 validTxs=0 invalidTxs=0
I[2020-12-14|04:27:53.798] Committed state                              module=state height=5 txs=0 appHash=6607BBDB8FCE8EE0EC870908A855CA8743C1ED411E28572ABF3722635F764029

[faddat]

@fadeev

When using stargate with the config.yaml you posted above above, config.toml looks like:

# EmptyBlocks mode and possible interval between empty blocks
create_empty_blocks = true
create_empty_blocks_interval = "0s"

to keep things lively I tried to set it in two ways:

version: 1
accounts:
  - name: user1
    coins: ["1000token", "100000000stake"]
  - name: user2
    coins: ["500token"]
validator:
  name: user1
  staked: "100000000stake"


#FIRST WAY
#init.config:
#  consensus:
#    create_empty_blocks_interval: "10s"

#SECOND  WAY
init:
  config:
    consensus:
      create_empty_blocks_interval: "20s"

[fadeev]

Can be configured using existing features of config.yml.