flashbots / flashbots/mev-boost-relay

[optimistic] Per-instance waitgroup inaccurately reflects status of optimistic processing

Open
#534 1 comment 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
Dominant language
Go
Stars
498
Forks
147
PR merge metrics
No merged PRs in 30d

Description

**Describe the bug**
As pointed out by Auston and Max of aestus relay, the current `waitgroup` design for handling optimistic block processing only works on a per-instance basis. In order to work as intended, some cross-process synchronization step is needed. Probably the best way to do this is through redis.

**Expected behavior**
The waitgroup is incremented up receipt of each optimistic builder submission: https://github.com/flashbots/mev-boost-relay/blob/c52858a6687ae538685b753a3c8323bf9b7d0e5d/services/api/service.go#L609

It is then waited on in a few places to try to ensure there is no outstanding optimistic blocks being processed: https://github.com/flashbots/mev-boost-relay/blob/c52858a6687ae538685b753a3c8323bf9b7d0e5d/services/api/service.go#L1304

Since there are multiple builder API and proposer API instances, the per-instance waitgroup isn't sufficient to ensure that all the optimistic blocks have been processed.

**Additional context**
Auston has explored changes to redis to handle this coordination: https://github.com/austonst/mev-boost-relay/commit/f52c9771b32a3d266db8b87b133f9d94b8a6179d

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Read services/api/service.go at the linked submission and wait locations to understand how the per-instance waitgroup is updated and consumed. Review the linked Redis exploration for coordination ideas; done means waits account for optimistic blocks across all builder and proposer API instances.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
go, redis
Domain
backend, distributed-systems
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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