Part 3: Annotated Specification

Types, Constants, Presets, and Configuration

Preamble

For some, a chapter on constants, presets and parameters will seem drier than the Namib Desert, but I've long found these to be a rich and fertile way in to the ideas and mechanisms we'll be unpacking in detail in later chapters. Far from being a desert, this part of the spec bustles with life.

The foundation is laid with a set of custom data types. The beacon chain specification is executable in Python; the data types defined at the top of the spec represent the fundamental quantities that will reappear frequently.

Then – with constants, presets, and parameters – we will examine the numbers that define and constrain the behaviour of the chain. Each of these quantities tells a story. Each parameter encapsulates an insight, or a mechanism, or a compromise. Why is it here? How has it changed over time? Where does its value come from?

Created by Ben Edgington. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Published 2023-07-01 13:14 UTC. Commit d859d30.