SSV Network Launches Alan Fork to Enhance Scalability and Optimize Ethereum Staking Operations

The SSV Network is gearing up for a significant upgrade with the launch of the Alan Fork. This update aims to enhance scalability and meet the growing demands of the ecosystem. It’s named after the famous mathematician Alan Turing, reflecting the network's commitment to decentralized staking.

Since launching its mainnet in December 2023, the SSV Network has seen impressive growth. It has become a key player in the Ethereum staking ecosystem. Right now, over 1.4 million ETH is secured by 43,000 validators, supported by more than 1,000 node operators worldwide. In just a few months, it's ranked among the top five staking providers.

To tackle scalability challenges, the Alan Fork reduces the networking and processing overhead needed for consensus. It introduces Committee-Based Consensus and optimizes subnet allocations. This helps minimize the amount of communication sent across the network.

The main goal of the Alan Fork is to improve scalability by easing the resource demands on node operators. It achieves this through two key advancements. First, the network consolidates the responsibilities of validators within the same committee. This means no more separate consensus processes for each validator's tasks.

Instead of individual validators exchanging messages, committees now handle communications. This change reduces the number of subnets operators need to monitor and cuts down on message duplication.

Preliminary tests after the fork show remarkable resource savings. Internal DevNet testing revealed a 70% drop in CPU usage. Before the fork, it took 3.3 hours of CPU time. After the update, that dropped to just 37.5 minutes. Bandwidth use also fell by 90%, with the message exchange rate declining from 1,800 messages per second to around 300.

Telemetry data from staging environments supports these findings. Nodes running the updated software maintained consistent validator performance while using significantly fewer resources.

The success of the Alan Fork largely comes from the Committee-Based Consensus mechanism. This approach changes how consensus is executed by focusing on committees instead of individual validators.

For example, a committee overseeing 500 validators might need to complete multiple tasks at the same time. Traditionally, this would require separate consensus procedures for each task. However, one consensus process can often suffice because different responsibilities usually require agreement on the same data, like the current status of the blockchain. This consolidation greatly reduces computational overhead.

Previously, each validator's interactions were sent across a subnet determined by their public key. This led to redundant messages being sent because of shared responsibilities. The Alan Fork changes this by allocating subnets based on committee identification. This ensures that only relevant messages are sent.

Thanks to this simplification, an operator now only needs to engage with three subnets instead of the usual 81.

The SSV Labs team is actively exploring further optimizations, even with the significant benefits the Alan Fork already provides. They are currently focusing on performance improvements and network topology enhancements.