Genesis Bootstrap with Multiple Validators

[sergerad]

Once we have multiple Validators, we need to decide how the genesis block will be bootstrapped w.r.t the Validator keys / signatures.

Options to consider:

1. Genesis header commits the full validator set (protocol handles enforcement from block 1 automatically via the existing parent-set check), and relax genesis self-signing to a single bootstrapper signature.
2. All Validator signatures added to genesis block.
3. ...?

[Mirko-von-Leipzig]

Thanks! I like option (1) for at least non-mainnet networks. However the other validators will also need to bootstrap somehow?

For mainnet, I think the core consideration is whether other validators feel the need to inspect genesis and verify genesis manually, or whether they're happy to trust genesis and then proceed from there.

If they want to inspect it, then mainnet bootstrapping becomes a manual affair e.g. every party inspects genesis, then bootstraps their validator with it. Only then can the sequencer begin, and it would need to pull signatures from every validator first.

Having this manual bootstrap requirement is a bit of a pain for spinning up new networks. Though perhaps we can trigger this via some automation that every validator party has access to.

If we have very few network resets, then this is also palatable, and any new network would require new infra etc, so perhaps automation isn't really feasible, nor required.

cc @bobbinth