System Config

Table of Contents

Overview

The SystemConfig is a contract on L1 that can emit rollup configuration changes as log events. The rollup block derivation process picks up on these log events and applies the changes.

System config contents (version 0)

Version 0 of the system configuration contract defines the following parameters:

batcherHash (bytes32)

A versioned hash of the current authorized batcher sender(s), to rotate keys as batch-submitter. The first byte identifies the version.

Version 0 embeds the current batch submitter ethereum address (bytes20) in the last 20 bytes of the versioned hash.

In the future this versioned hash may become a commitment to a more extensive configuration, to enable more extensive redundancy and/or rotation configurations.

Scalars

The L1 fee parameters, also known as Gas Price Oracle (GPO) parameters, are used to compute the L1 data fee applied to an L2 transaction. The specific parameters used depend on the upgrades that are active.

Fee parameter updates are signaled to L2 through the GAS_CONFIG log-event of the SystemConfig.

Pre-Ecotone scalar, overhead (uint256,uint256)

The overhead and scalar are consulted and passed to the L2 via L1 attribute info.

The values are interpreted as big-endian uint256.

Ecotone scalar, overhead (uint256,uint256) change

After Ecotone activation:

  • The scalar attribute encodes additional scalar information, in a versioned encoding scheme.
  • The overhead value is ignored: it does not affect the L2 state-transition output.

The scalar is encoded as big-endian uint256, interpreted as bytes32, and composed as following:

*Byte ranges are indicated with [ (inclusive) and ) (exclusive).

  • 0: scalar-version byte
  • [1, 32): depending scalar-version:
    • Scalar-version 0:
      • [1, 28): padding, should be zero.
      • [28, 32): big-endian uint32, encoding the L1-fee baseFeeScalar
      • This version implies the L1-fee blobBaseFeeScalar is set to 0.
      • In the event there are non-zero bytes in the padding area, baseFeeScalar must be set to MaxUint32.
      • This version is compatible with the pre-Ecotone scalar value (assuming a uint32 range).
    • Scalar-version 1:
      • [1, 24): padding, must be zero.
      • [24, 28): big-endian uint32, encoding the blobBaseFeeScalar
      • [28, 32): big-endian uint32, encoding the baseFeeScalar
      • This version is meant to configure the EIP-4844 blob fee component, once blobs are used for data-availability.
    • Other scalar-version values: unrecognized. OP-Stack forks are recommended to utilize the >= 128 scalar-version range and document their scalar encoding.

Invalid and unrecognized scalar event-data should be ignored, and the last valid configuration should continue to be utilized.

The baseFeeScalar and blobBaseFeeScalar are incorporated into the L2 through the Ecotone L1 attributes deposit transaction calldata.

Future upgrades of the SystemConfig contract may provide additional typed getters/setters for the versioned scalar information.

In Ecotone the existing setGasConfig function, and scalar and overhead getters, continue to function.

When the batch-submitter utilizes EIP-4844 blob data for data-availability it can adjust the scalars to accurately price the resources:

  • baseFeeScalar to correspond to the share of the user-transaction (per byte) in the total regular L1 EVM gas usage consumed by the data-transaction of the batch-submitter. For blob transactions this is the fixed intrinsic gas cost of the L1 transaction.

  • blobBaseFeeScalar to correspond to share of a user-transaction (per byte) in the total Blob data that is introduced by the data-transaction of the batch-submitter.

gasLimit (uint64)

The gas limit of the L2 blocks is configured through the system config. Changes to the L2 gas limit are fully applied in the first L2 block with the L1 origin that introduced the change, as opposed to the 1/1024 adjustments towards a target as seen in limit updates of L1 blocks.

The gas limit may not be set to a value larger than 200_000_000. This is to ensure that the L2 blocks are fault provable and of reasonable size to be processed by the client software. Over time, this value will be increased.

unsafeBlockSigner (address)

Blocks are gossiped around the p2p network before they are made available on L1. To prevent denial of service on the p2p layer, these unsafe blocks must be signed with a particular key to be accepted as "canonical" unsafe blocks. The address corresponding to this key is the unsafeBlockSigner. To ensure that its value can be fetched with a storage proof in a storage layout independent manner, it is stored at a special storage slot corresponding to keccak256("systemconfig.unsafeblocksigner").

Unlike the other values, the unsafeBlockSigner only operates on blockchain policy. It is not a consensus level parameter.

Writing the system config

The SystemConfig contract applies authentication to all writing contract functions, the configuration management can be configured to be any type of ethereum account or contract.

On a write, an event is emitted for the change to be picked up by the L2 system, and a copy of the new written configuration variable is retained in L1 state to read with L1 contracts.

Reading the system config

A rollup node initializes its derivation process by finding a starting point based on its past L2 chain:

  • When started from L2 genesis, the initial system configuration is retrieved from the rollup chain configuration.
  • When started from an existing L2 chain, a previously included L1 block is determined as derivation starting point, and the system config can thus be retrieved from the last L2 block that referenced the L1 block as L1 origin:
    • If the chain state precedes the Ecotone upgrade, batcherHash, overhead and scalar are retrieved from the L1 block info transaction. Otherwise, batcherHash, baseFeeScalar, and blobBaseFeeScalar are retrieved instead.
    • gasLimit is retrieved from the L2 block header.
    • other future variables may also be retrieved from other contents of the L2 block, such as the header.

After preparing the initial system configuration for the given L1 starting input, the system configuration is updated by processing all receipts from each new L1 block.

The contained log events are filtered and processed as follows:

  • the log event contract address must match the rollup SystemConfig deployment
  • the first log event topic must match the ABI hash of ConfigUpdate(uint256,uint8,bytes)
  • the second topic determines the version. Unknown versions are critical derivation errors.
  • the third topic determines the type of update. Unknown types are critical derivation errors.
  • the remaining event data is opaque, encoded as ABI bytes (i.e. includes offset and length data), and encodes the configuration update. In version 0 the following types are supported:
    • type 0: batcherHash overwrite, as bytes32 payload.
    • type 1: Pre-Ecotone, overhead and scalar overwrite, as two packed uint256 entries. After Ecotone upgrade, overhead is ignored and scalar interpreted as a versioned encoding that updates baseFeeScalar and blobBaseFeeScalar.
    • type 2: gasLimit overwrite, as uint64 payload.
    • type 3: unsafeBlockSigner overwrite, as address payload.

Note that individual derivation stages may be processing different L1 blocks, and should thus maintain individual system configuration copies, and apply the event-based changes as the stage traverses to the next L1 block.