The SSV Network DAO proudly announces that Sigma Prime will develop a second client for the SSV node, Anchor. Opposed to the first SSV node developed in Go, the new client by Sigma Prime is developed in Rust and maintained by a dedicated team. Anchor marks a massive step for the protocol as it enhances the robustness of the network and removes the reliance on the Go implementation. This blog post will outline why it’s essential to have another node client, why SSV DAO chose Sigma Prime, and a look at initial development timelines.

The name Anchor follows Sigma Prime’s nautical theming and represents a solid tool for keeping boats safe and steady.

Anchor SSV Client by Sigma Prime

A common but very important practice in decentralized blockchain ecosystems is reducing reliance on a single software or infrastructure layer. When the Beacon Chain launched around four years ago, there were only a handful of clients compared to today. Initially, this meant that if a client went down, a large set of validators would be affected – since there weren’t many clients to choose from. This caused downtime and a potential loss of rewards for validators using that client. It becomes a different problem when more than 1/3 of all validators are offline. Then, the beacon chain cannot finalize, which threatens a fundamental property of the consensus protocol – liveness.

The current state of affairs is a bit different; there are many more clients to choose from, and if a bug in either Execution/Consensus client occurs, a smaller subset of validators will be affected. Still, single points of failure persist; the effects are just not as widespread, and in an industry that strives for 100% uptime, this is an important point to consider.

Enter SSV Network

SSV Network is a DVT Network that facilitates splitting validator private keys among multiple non-trusting machines. These machines use a consensus mechanism to operate validators in a fault-tolerant and distributed manner. For re/staking providers and solo-stakers, if any client bugs occur, a threshold of machines (ideally utilizing different EL/CL clients in various jurisdictions on different infrastructure types) will still be able to conduct duties. This ensures that validators can achieve maximum performance and uptime even when hit with a critical failure.

However, even though SSV solved various single points of failure, the SSV node (essentially the validator client) could now be seen as a single point of failure itself. A fair trade-off from the DAO’s perspective is a 1 for 3 if you look at solving single points of failure in components, clients, and even jurisdictions. Now, thanks to the new Anchor SSV client developed by the OGs, a non-negligible point of failure has been resolved.

This means that in the unlikely event that the SSV node encounters a problem, those running the Anchor client will not be affected. Using both clients in an SSV cluster effectively reduces the chance for validator client downtime by 50%, along with the other resilience benefits provided to validators through DVT.

Why Is Sigma Prime the Perfect Partner?

Sigma Prime is no stranger to the Ethereum ecosystem. As the creators of Lighthouse, one of Ethereum’s most widely-used consensus clients, their team combines deep technical expertise with a proven track record in building secure, performant infrastructure. Having developed multiple Ethereum primitives, there is no better option for a team to develop the second SSV client. By leveraging Sigma Prime’s experience, they can ensure that the new client meets the highest standards of reliability and efficiency.

How Anchor Helps Both SSV and Ethereum as a Whole

By using the SSV node specification, teams can more easily develop a new node implementation based on the core logic of the SSV node. There are various benefits to building new clients in a different coding language.

Development Roadmap

Below is the tentative roadmap for Anchor. Remember, as is the nature of technology, these dates are subject to change.

A crucial benefit of the new client is that it’s not just a grant. Sigma Prime will create a dedicated team to build and maintain the client, ensuring it stays optimal and bug-free for the future. The SSV DAO is pleased to have Sigma Prime join the SSV Network ecosystem as another crucial contributor to the protocol.

Learn More & Start Testing

The SSV DAO encourages all node operators to test and utilize the new client as it goes live.

For those who want to dive under the hood of Anchor, the GitHub repository is now open to view as work on the client starts rolling out. Among all the happenings in the SSV ecosystem, this is one of the most important. The team has been working toward this since launching the SSV mainnet. Congratulations everyone!

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