Author: Mia, ChainCatcher
Editor: Marco, ChainCatcher
From liquidity staking to scalability improvement, Ethereum has been leading the technological innovation and ecological development in the cryptocurrency field. However, it is also facing a long-neglected but widely recognized crisis - the security challenges of the Ethereum network. With the development of the Ethereum network, running independent validators face many obstacles, leading to the popularity of staking and restaking services. However, these services concentrate the validation power in the hands of a few node operators, bringing technical, market, and regulatory risks to the security of Ethereum.
Heroglyphs, a new solution for independent Ethereum validators, attempts to address this challenge.
The Heroglyphs white paper was officially released this month. The white paper introduces that the Heroglyphs protocol is an innovative Ethereum protocol initiated by 0xMaki, former core contributor of SushiSwap and Chief Strategy Advisor of LayerZero. It aims to incentivize independent Ethereum stakers by mimicking elements of the Proof of Work (PoW) system, thereby enhancing the security and decentralization of the Ethereum network.
The core principle of the Heroglyphs protocol lies in utilizing the Graffiti feature introduced in Ethereum 2.0 as a new form of information transmission and incentive mechanism. Heroglyphs consists of two main modules: the Encoder and the Translator. The Encoder encodes information into the 32-byte Graffiti field to create tokens, define attributes, and identify recipient wallet addresses. The Translator, through a set of smart contracts, converts the encoded information in Graffiti into on-chain operations, which can include (but are not limited to) creating, transferring, and issuing various tokens.
Introduction of the Graffiti Feature
In Ethereum 2.0, Graffiti is a special field embedded in the block header, allowing validators to embed additional information when creating new blocks. This information is typically personal messages, identifiers, or random data used to express the validator's personality or convey specific information.
The white paper shows that the functionality of Graffiti has been expanded and upgraded in the Heroglyphs protocol.
Information Encoding: The Heroglyphs protocol uses an Encoder to densely embed specific information (such as the validator's identity and contribution) into Graffiti. This process utilizes data compression and encoding techniques to ensure that information can be fully utilized within the limited Graffiti space.
Information Transformation: Once information is embedded in Graffiti, another core component of the Heroglyphs protocol, the Translator, converts it into a series of on-chain operations. These operations can include token creation, issuance, and transfer, depending on the embedded information content and protocol rules.
Incentive Mechanism: Through the aforementioned information encoding and transformation processes, the Heroglyphs protocol provides a new incentive mechanism for independent validators. Validators can showcase their contributions and identities by embedding specific information in Graffiti and receive corresponding rewards. These rewards can be tokens, reputation values, or other forms of incentives, depending on the protocol's design and community needs.
Heroglyphs Features
Rewarding Solo Stakers: The primary goal of the Heroglyphs protocol is to reward independent stakers on Ethereum by issuing new tokens. The issuance of these tokens mimics the "mining" rewards in the Proof of Work system, providing economic incentives for stakers without actually adopting the energy-intensive PoW mechanism.
Fair Token Distribution: The protocol design ensures that all full validators can receive rewards based on their participation, regardless of their staking scale or whether they are selected as block proposers. This mechanism helps create a fair competitive environment, reduce the dominance of large node operators, and support small validators.
User-Customized Tokens: Users can create new tokens through the Heroglyphs protocol and specify the total supply, specific issuance plans, and initial allocation of tokens. This provides a platform for community members to create and issue tokens with custom parameters according to their needs.
Decentralized Validation: By incentivizing independent stakers, the Heroglyphs protocol aims to promote a more decentralized and resilient validation environment. This helps mitigate the potential threat to the decentralization of the Ethereum network posed by liquidity staking protocols, which may lead to centralization of power.
Enhancing Ethereum Security: By encouraging more decentralized validation and rewarding independent stakers, the Heroglyphs protocol aims to improve the security of the Ethereum network and help reverse the trend of concentration of validation and related information permissions among a few validators.
Advantages of Heroglyphs
The Heroglyphs protocol enhances the security of the Ethereum network by providing positive incentives for independent validators, successfully dispersing validation power.
Efficiency
The Heroglyphs protocol uses Encoder technology to densely embed key information into the Graffiti field of Ethereum block headers, improving data transmission efficiency and enhancing information security. Validators can utilize this feature to embed more meaningful information in the limited Graffiti space and execute various on-chain operations.
Flexibility
The Translator feature of the Heroglyphs protocol provides validators with great flexibility. Through this feature, validators can convert the information embedded in Graffiti into various on-chain operations, such as creating, issuing, and transferring tokens. This also enables the Heroglyphs protocol to support multiple use cases, meeting the needs of different users within the community.
Community-Driven
The Heroglyphs protocol emphasizes the power of the community and aims to promote the values of Ethereum in visible cultural domains. By providing positive incentives for validators, the Heroglyphs protocol reduces the cost of inaction and coordinates incentive measures within the ecosystem, stimulating the initiative of validators and promoting the prosperity and development of the entire ecosystem.
The Heroglyphs protocol establishes a framework for defining a new asset class on top of Ethereum, emphasizing the importance of independent validators.
Once Heroglyphs gains attention, it will create a virtuous cycle: more and more people will become independent validators, generating more Heroglyphs.
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