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Professional node operators

Professional node operators should run a diverse set of clients and decide which chain to attest to based on their combined output. Until now, this was only possible through Vouch. Vero introduces an alternative that is easier to adopt and can be adopted gradually.

Vero is compatible with all CL and EL clients (see compatibility), therefore we recommend running up to five different client pairs and ensuring that no single client runs on a majority of servers. This will ensure validators are not exposed to single-client bugs and also allows for maintenance to be performed on up to two servers at a time.

Become a Vero Sponsor

Consider supporting Vero's development by becoming an official Vero Sponsor.

Sponsors get access to exclusive features designed to make validator operations even more reliable, including high availability and access to priority support.

Step-by-step Migration Example

Let's assume you're a professional node operator, running validator clients developed by CL client teams, connected to a 50% mix of Geth-Prysm (5 servers) and Nethermind-Lighthouse (5 servers). Let's also assume you already have a remote signer set up with an enabled slashing protection database.

This setup is safer than only running a single client implementation but it still exposes your validators to risks such as:

  • 33% consensus client bugs
  • fallback behavior bugs – for example, if your Nethermind nodes reject an invalid block, your validator client may automatically fall back to using your Geth nodes which could consider that block valid due to a bug

To migrate to a more resilient setup using Vero, you would:

  1. Switch to using Vero as your validator client.

    This step should be easy to perform if you're already using a remote signer. You only switch a single component within your setup, the validator client, without any slashing risk. In case of need, switching back to the validator client you used previously is equally easy.

  2. Start introducing more clients onto your servers gradually.

    Switch to the Lodestar client on one of them. Then switch to the Besu client on another. Continue switching clients one by one until you reach your desired end state while keeping an eye on Vero metrics, especially the attestation consensus time and duty submission time. With five servers, you could easily be running five different CL clients and five different EL clients. Vero is compatible with all of them.

  3. Enjoy the peace of mind a diverse set of clients gives you.

    Whenever any single client has a bug, you don't need to step in immediately since Vero will simply keep going using the other clients in the mix. Even if two clients share an identical bug, the three other clients will keep things going without any action required on your part!

    If you want to be extra conservative around network upgrades, when client bugs are more likely to surface, you can temporarily increase Vero's attestation consensus threshold. You could require four, or even all five of the connected clients to agree on the state of the chain before your validators vote for it.

The ultimate setup for professional node operators?

flowchart TD

%% VC<->CL
Lighthouse <--> Vero
Lodestar <--> Vero
Nimbus <--> Vero
Prysm <--> Vero
Teku <--> Vero

%% CL<->EL
Besu <--> Lighthouse
Erigon <--> Lodestar
Geth <--> Nimbus
Nethermind <--> Prysm
Reth <--> Teku

style Vero fill:#11497E,stroke:#000000

Besides being resilient against single-client bugs, this kind of setup also allows you to gradually introduce new clients that may not be completely battle-tested yet, like Grandine or Reth.

If you're a professional node operator not yet running a multi-node setup, do yourself —and the network— a favor and start using Vero.