perf: consensus, storage, execution, and network hot-path optimizations by 0xZunia · Pull Request #74 · Basalt-Foundation/basalt

0xZunia · 2026-03-15T23:01:32Z

Summary

Comprehensive performance optimization pass across 24 files, targeting allocation reduction in consensus, storage, execution, trie, DEX, bridge, and network layers.

Changes (5 commits)

Commit 1 — Core hot paths (8 files):

Cache BLS public key byte[] in ValidatorInfo (eliminates 6+ allocs per vote)
O(1) vote deduplication via VoteSignatureSet with FNV-1a HashSet
Per-address storage slot index in FlatStateDb (O(1) account deletion)
Copy-on-write Fork() — share byte[] references instead of deep copy
Skip signature re-verification in BlockBuilder for mempool-admitted txs
O(n log m) mempool sender selection via SortedSet priority queue
ArrayPool clearArray:false in MessageCodec

Commit 2 — Execution caching (4 files):

Cache compliance proofs hash in Transaction
Direct array construction in PipelinedConsensus aggregation
Reuse key buffer in ReceiptStore.PutReceipts
Pre-allocate buffers in RocksDbFlatStatePersistence.Flush

Commit 3 — Node/consensus/DEX (3 files):

Replace .ToArray().Where().ToList() with direct iteration in NodeCoordinator
stackalloc in WeightedLeaderSelector stake conversion
Cache DEX event signature BLAKE3 hashes

Commit 4 — Trie/execution/network (10 files):

Eliminate MemoryStream in TrieNode.Encode() — pre-computed exact size
ReadOnlySpan in NibblePath.FromCompactEncoding (avoid .ToArray() in Decode)
Binary uint32 selector comparison in ManagedContractRuntime (zero-alloc)
Cache Address.Zero bytes, lazy CallerBytes/ContractAddressBytes
Direct array Merkle root construction in BlockBuilder
PopCount + pre-sized array in GetValidatorsFromBitmap
Loop-based tier rebalance in EpisubService

Commit 5 — DEX/bridge (3 files):

In-place RemoveAll() in BatchAuctionSolver deadline filtering
Cache relayer list in MultisigRelayer
Eliminate intermediate hashes array in BridgeProofVerifier

Estimated impact

Metric	Before	After
Allocs per block (100 txs)	~1,200-1,500	~400-600 (~60% reduction)
Vote deduplication	O(n) linear scan	O(1) HashSet
Mempool tx selection	O(n*m) nested loop	O(n log m) SortedSet
Fork() storage copy	Deep copy all byte[]	Share references (COW)
TrieNode.Encode	MemoryStream + resize + copy	Single exact-size array
Contract dispatch	2 string allocs (hex)	0 allocs (uint compare)

Test plan

dotnet build — 0 warnings, 0 errors
dotnet test — all 2,905 tests pass, 0 failures
Devnet smoke test with 4 validators

- Cache BLS public key byte[] in ValidatorInfo to eliminate heap allocations in the consensus vote verification loop - Replace O(n) List.Exists() vote deduplication with O(1) HashSet via VoteSignatureSet with FNV-1a ByteArrayKey - Add per-address storage slot index in FlatStateDb for O(1) account deletion instead of scanning the entire storage cache - Replace deep-copy Fork() with shallow reference sharing (COW-safe since SetStorage always replaces the byte[] reference) - Skip Ed25519 signature re-verification in BlockBuilder for transactions already validated at mempool admission - Replace O(n*m) mempool sender selection with O(n log m) SortedSet priority queue - Avoid zeroing ArrayPool buffers on return in MessageCodec

…on allocs - Cache compliance proofs hash in Transaction to avoid recomputing on every WriteSigningPayload call - Replace .Select().ToArray() with direct array construction in PipelinedConsensus GetAggregateSignature - Reuse key buffer across iterations in ReceiptStore.PutReceipts - Pre-allocate account/storage key and state encoding buffers in RocksDbFlatStatePersistence.Flush instead of per-iteration allocs - Apply skipSignature optimization to BuildBlockWithDex path

…on, cache DEX event sigs - Replace .ToArray().Where().ToList() with direct iteration in NodeCoordinator proposal evidence cleanup (2 call sites) - Use stackalloc for UInt256 stake-to-weight conversion in WeightedLeaderSelector instead of heap byte[32] - Cache BLAKE3 hashes of DEX event signatures in static dictionary to avoid per-operation string concat + hash computation

…ath optimizations Trie layer: - Replace MemoryStream in TrieNode.Encode() with pre-computed exact size and direct byte[] write — eliminates ~3 allocs per trie node - Accept ReadOnlySpan<byte> in NibblePath.FromCompactEncoding() to avoid .ToArray() copies during TrieNode.Decode() Execution layer: - Replace hex string selector comparison with uint32 binary compare in ManagedContractRuntime — eliminates 2 string allocs per call - Cache Address.Zero.ToArray() as static field in TransactionExecutor - Add lazy-cached CallerBytes/ContractAddressBytes on VmExecutionContext so ContractBridge.Setup() avoids .ToArray() per contract call - Replace .Select().ToList() with direct array construction for Merkle root computation in BlockBuilder - Replace LINQ .Take().Select().ToList() with direct loop in Mempool fast path (no-stateDb case) Consensus layer: - Use PopCount + pre-sized array in ValidatorSet.GetValidatorsFromBitmap instead of dynamically-resized List Network layer: - Replace LINQ chains (Select→Where→OrderBy→FirstOrDefault) with direct min/max loops in EpisubService.RebalanceTiers()

- Replace .Where().ToList() with in-place RemoveAll() in BatchAuctionSolver deadline filtering to avoid List allocation - Replace .Select().ToList() with direct loop for order extraction - Cache relayer list in MultisigRelayer, invalidate on add/remove - Eliminate intermediate hashes array in BridgeProofVerifier by computing leaf hashes directly into the padded buffer

…sends them

Copilot

Pull request overview

Performance-focused refactor across consensus, execution, storage/trie, DEX, bridge, and network code paths to reduce allocations and improve asymptotic behavior in several hot loops.

Changes:

Reworked several serialization/encoding paths to write directly into exact-sized buffers (trie nodes, network message buffers, Merkle roots).
Added caching and indexing structures to avoid repeated allocations/scans (BLS pubkey bytes, compliance proofs hash, per-address storage slot index, event signature hashes).
Improved selection/dedup algorithms in mempool/consensus/network services (SortedSet-based sender interleaving, O(1) vote signature dedup, loop-based tier rebalance).

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 25 out of 25 changed files in this pull request and generated 8 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
src/storage/Basalt.Storage/Trie/TrieNode.cs	Replaces MemoryStream-based node encoding with exact-size buffer writes; span-based compact path decode.
src/storage/Basalt.Storage/Trie/NibblePath.cs	Changes compact path decode API to accept ReadOnlySpan to avoid intermediate allocations.
src/storage/Basalt.Storage/RocksDb/RocksDbFlatStatePersistence.cs	Reuses key/value buffers during flush to reduce per-iteration allocations.
src/storage/Basalt.Storage/RocksDb/ReceiptStore.cs	Reuses receipt key buffer inside batched writes.
src/storage/Basalt.Storage/FlatStateDb.cs	Adds per-address storage-slot index; switches Fork() to shallow-copy storage values (COW).
src/node/Basalt.Node/NodeCoordinator.cs	Removes LINQ materialization when pruning old proposal keys.
src/network/Basalt.Network/MessageCodec.cs	Returns pooled buffers without clearing to reduce overhead.
src/network/Basalt.Network/Gossip/EpisubService.cs	Replaces LINQ sorting with single-pass best/worst selection loops.
src/execution/Basalt.Execution/VM/ManagedContractRuntime.cs	Switches selector dispatch from hex strings to uint32 comparisons (zero-alloc fast path).
src/execution/Basalt.Execution/VM/ExecutionContext.cs	Adds cached Caller/ContractAddress byte[] accessors to avoid repeated ToArray().
src/execution/Basalt.Execution/VM/ContractBridge.cs	Uses cached address bytes from VmExecutionContext to reduce allocations.
src/execution/Basalt.Execution/TransactionValidator.cs	Adds `skipSignature` option to validation for performance-sensitive paths.
src/execution/Basalt.Execution/TransactionExecutor.cs	Caches Address.Zero bytes to avoid repeated allocations.
src/execution/Basalt.Execution/Transaction.cs	Caches computed compliance proofs hash for reuse in signing payload.
src/execution/Basalt.Execution/Mempool.cs	Avoids LINQ allocations; implements SortedSet “priority queue” sender interleaving.
src/execution/Basalt.Execution/Dex/DexEngine.cs	Adds static cache for event signature hashes to avoid recomputation.
src/execution/Basalt.Execution/Dex/BatchAuctionSolver.cs	Uses in-place filtering and loop-based list extraction to reduce allocations.
src/execution/Basalt.Execution/BlockBuilder.cs	Skips signature re-verification in block building; avoids LINQ for Merkle leaf collection.
src/consensus/Basalt.Consensus/WeightedLeaderSelector.cs	Uses stackalloc for stake-to-weight conversion buffer.
src/consensus/Basalt.Consensus/ValidatorSet.cs	Adds cached BLS pubkey bytes; changes bitmap extraction to pre-sized array.
src/consensus/Basalt.Consensus/PipelinedConsensus.cs	Uses cached BLS pubkey bytes and avoids LINQ allocations for signature aggregation.
src/consensus/Basalt.Consensus/BasaltBft.cs	Replaces linear vote signature dedup with VoteSignatureSet and cached BLS pubkey bytes usage.
src/bridge/Basalt.Bridge/MultisigRelayer.cs	Adds cached relayer list to avoid rebuilding list repeatedly.
src/bridge/Basalt.Bridge/BridgeProofVerifier.cs	Removes intermediate hashes array and refactors Merkle proof building allocations; updates Caddyfile CORS note.
deploy/testnet/Caddyfile	Removes duplicated CORS headers (comment-only guidance).

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src/storage/Basalt.Storage/FlatStateDb.cs

src/consensus/Basalt.Consensus/ValidatorSet.cs

src/execution/Basalt.Execution/Dex/DexEngine.cs

+    private static Hash256 GetEventSignature(string eventName)
+    {
+        if (!EventSigCache.TryGetValue(eventName, out var sig))
+        {
+            sig = Blake3Hasher.Hash(System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes("Dex." + eventName));
+            EventSigCache[eventName] = sig;
+        }
+        return sig;
+    }


src/bridge/Basalt.Bridge/MultisigRelayer.cs

src/storage/Basalt.Storage/Trie/TrieNode.cs

src/storage/Basalt.Storage/RocksDb/RocksDbFlatStatePersistence.cs

src/storage/Basalt.Storage/RocksDb/ReceiptStore.cs

src/bridge/Basalt.Bridge/BridgeProofVerifier.cs

Consensus and sync could both apply the same block concurrently, causing "Block parent hash does not match" errors that tripped the circuit breaker and stalled RPC nodes permanently. - NodeCoordinator: skip re-execution when sync already applied the finalized block (prevents state corruption and circuit breaker trips) - BlockApplier: tolerate already-applied blocks in ApplyBatch so the sync loop reports progress instead of stalling - BlockSyncService: add fork detection and chain rollback so RPC nodes auto-recover from chain divergence instead of retrying forever

…ation TWAP per-block snapshots created unique storage keys per (pool, block) that accumulated forever in FlatStateDb._storageCache. After ~24h of operation, Fork() deep-copied 400K+ entries including per-address HashSet clones, eventually exceeding the block interval and triggering a cascading sync failure that pinned CPU at 100% permanently. - Skip _storageSlotsIndex deep-copy in Fork() (O(1) instead of O(n)); DeleteAccount on forks falls back to key scan (rare operation) - Prune TWAP snapshots older than 3600 blocks (~2h) each block - Move EpisubService seen/cache cleanup to background with 10s cooldown - Replace ChainManager O(n) block eviction with watermark-based O(1) - Restore .ToArray() snapshot for _proposalsByView enumeration safety

Previous fix still copied _storageCache (O(400K+) with accumulated TWAP snapshots). Since FlatStateDb always writes through to the trie, forks now start with empty caches — reads fall through to the forked trie on first access. Fork() is now O(1) regardless of cache size. Also fix TWAP pruning: previous window was too narrow (poolCount*2 blocks per call) to clear historical backlog. Now uses a persisted watermark and prunes up to 200 blocks per call, progressively catching up. Prevents _storageCache on the canonical state from growing unboundedly.

Reduce MaxPrunePerCall from 200 to 50 blocks to avoid overwhelming RocksDB with tombstones during backlog cleanup (was generating 1000 deletes/block × 200 blocks = burst of writes triggering compaction). Restore _accountCache copy in Fork() — only ~50 entries but eliminates hundreds of RocksDB trie reads per block during sync execution. Storage cache remains zero-copy (the large one with TWAP snapshots).

- FlatStateDb: populate _storageSlotsIndex in GetStorage and LoadFromPersistence so DeleteAccount finds all cached entries - ValidatorSet: mask bitmap to valid indices in GetValidatorsFromBitmap to prevent null entries from stale bits beyond validator count - DexEngine: change EventSigCache to ConcurrentDictionary with GetOrAdd to fix unsynchronized static Dictionary writes - MultisigRelayer: return ReadOnlyCollection from GetRelayers to prevent callers from mutating the cached list - TrieNode: advance pos after BranchValue.CopyTo for consistent writer state - RocksDbFlatStatePersistence/ReceiptStore: allocate fresh key arrays per WriteBatch.Put to avoid potential reference-sharing corruption - BridgeProofVerifier: fix misleading comment about alternating buffers

0xZunia added 6 commits March 14, 2026 16:46

fix(deploy): remove duplicate CORS headers from Caddy — node already …

dcc9d74

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0xZunia requested a review from Copilot March 19, 2026 08:30

Copilot AI reviewed Mar 19, 2026

View reviewed changes

0xZunia added 4 commits March 19, 2026 23:13

0xZunia force-pushed the perf/consensus-storage-mempool-optimizations branch from 56b6820 to bc141c6 Compare March 22, 2026 16:30

0xZunia merged commit f6662d7 into main Mar 22, 2026
5 checks passed

0xZunia deleted the perf/consensus-storage-mempool-optimizations branch March 22, 2026 16:37

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perf: consensus, storage, execution, and network hot-path optimizations#74

perf: consensus, storage, execution, and network hot-path optimizations#74
0xZunia merged 11 commits intomainfrom
perf/consensus-storage-mempool-optimizations

0xZunia commented Mar 15, 2026

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0xZunia commented Mar 15, 2026

Summary

Changes (5 commits)

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