Ethereum Beacon Node API: Pinning a validator to a specific slot

Overview

In this article, we’ll explore how to interact with the Ethereum beacon node API to retrieve information about the validators validating specific slots. This involves calling the /eth/v1/beacon/states/ endpoint and using its slots parameter to filter the results.

Prerequisites

• You have an account on the Ethereum network (eg mainnet, testnet)

• You are familiar with the Ethereum Beacon protocol and its API

• You have the necessary permissions to access the specified slot

Interaction with the Beacon node API

To retrieve information about the validators validating a particular slot, you can call the /eth/v1/beacon/states/ endpoint. Here’s an example of how to do it:

curl -X GET \

   \

  --data-urlencode "q=0x1234567890abcdef&slot=15687030" \

  --header 'Content-Type: application/json'

Replace YOUR_PROJECT_ID with the actual Infura project ID and slot number (in hexadecimal format).

Extraction of validator data

The API response will contain an array of validator objects, each representing a validator. To extract the information you need, you should iterate through the array and find validators that match the specified criteria.

Here is some Python code that uses the requests library:

import requests
def get_validators(slot):
url = f"
response = requests.get(url, headers={'Content-Type': 'application/json'})
data = response.json()
validators = []
for validator in data['slots']:
if validator['validator_id'] == slot:
validators.add(validator)
return validators





Usage example
slot = 15687030
validators = get_validators(slot)
for validator in validators:
print(f"Validator ID: {validator['validator_id']}")

Additional validation information (e.g. name, address) goes here

Filtering by validator name or address

If you need to filter results based on the name or address of a specific validator, you should modify the get_validators function to search for validators that match your criteria.

For example:

def get_validators(slot, filters):
url = f"
params = {'q': ' OR '.join(f"validator.name='{filter}' AND validator.address='{filter}'" for filter in filters)}
response = requests.get(url, headers={'Content-Type': 'application/json'}, params=params)
data = response.json()
validators = []
for validator in data['slots']:
if (filter in validator['validator_id'].lower() or filter in validator['validator_address'].lower() for filter in filters):
validators.add(validator)
return validators

Note that you can use different types of filters, such as such as name, address, contract, and more.

Conclusion

Following these steps, you should be able to interact with the Ethereum beacon node API to retrieve information about validators validating specific slots. Remember to always check your Infura project ID and ensure that your network is compatible with the Beacon protocol before running this code in production.

METAMASK METAMASK WHEN ERC20