Distributed validator technology with Obol Labs
Tags: softwaredevelopment, blockchain, ethereum, proofofstake
Published: 2024-05-30 10:35:51

Recently I was reading about [Obol Labs](https://docs.obol.tech/docs/int/Overview) and found intriguing what they are offering to the world. If you are into proof of stake I think you should read this one and check out their official [docs](https://docs.obol.tech/docs/int/Overview)

Obol team is working on Distributed Validator Technology. Their mission is to preserve decentralization, make validators more fault-tolerant, and even give opportunity for smaller individuals to participate as validator. 

Quote from their documentation: 

> The Obol Network will become an open, community governed, self-sustaining project over the coming months and years. Together we will incentivize, build, and maintain distributed validator technology that makes public networks a more secure and resilient foundation to build on top of.

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One word is enough. Beautiful.


If you are familiar with Ethereum 2.0, in proof of stake validators get punished for malicious activity. But sometimes validators get penalty without malicious intent. It can happen due to errors or misconfiguration. For example you can have 2 nodes and by mistake use same validator key on both, which would result in double voting or double proposing. Or your validator goes offline for longer than allowed, will result in inactivity penalty. Obol jumps to solve this as well. Lets find out how.  

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/1a5nv5cev77ar8l6mcol.png)
**DVT** - Distributed Validator Technology is a Ethereum proof of stake validator that consists of multiple entities forming one validator. Not all validators need to be online 100% of the time in order to continue participating in the network. More info on that in [here](https://docs.obol.tech/docs/charon/cluster-configuration#cluster-size-and-resilience)  

**Charon** is a distributed validator client designed to work as part of the Ethereum proof-of-stake protocol. It forms a cluster of nodes that collectively act as a single validator. Meaning they allow multiple entities to join into one group and act as one validator in Ethereum network. 

Each node in the cluster is responsible for contributing to the validation process, ensuring high availability and fault tolerance.

Traditionally when you were setting up a node you needed to generate public/private key. Now you probably are already wondering, how will multiple entities who have joined to form one validator keep this trustless. Solution is called `key sharing`. 

Entities who agreed to form a group and act as one validator, will collaboratively generate and share a distributed key without any single participant knowing the complete key. This process enhances security and fault tolerance for operating distributed validators by ensuring that no individual entity holds complete control over the key. You can find out more in official [docs](https://docs.obol.tech/docs/charon/dkg)
 

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### Benefits of Using Charon
**Resiliency:** The distributed nature ensures that validator operations continue even if some nodes go offline.

**Security:** Distributed shared key mechanism enhances the security of the staking process.

**Decentralization:** Helps broader goal of Ethereum’s decentralization by enabling more participants to run validators in distributed way.

Setting up Charon involves coordination and careful configuration but results in a robust and secure validation setup for Ethereum staking. For more detailed steps and technical specifics, refer to the Charon documentation provided by [Obol Labs](https://docs.obol.tech/docs/int/Overview).