Root cause of the testnet VM-layer lag: applyBranchFinalization swallowed VM.Accept's error
(_ = vmb.Accept(ctx)) and marked the block finalized + advanced decidedFloor/finalizedThrough
regardless. When the EVM refused a consensus-finalized block (empty-block rejection), consensus
finalized it anyway and the durable floor ran AHEAD of the EVM accepted head (floor 427 while
EVM stuck at 415) — a permanent divergence.
FIX (fail-closed): VM.Accept is now called BEFORE committing a block's finality and its error
is CHECKED. applyBranchFinalization accepts ascending, commits each block's finality only after
the VM applied it, STOPS at the first VM.Accept error, and returns highestAccepted =
the highest height the VM actually applied. acceptWithCertCore advances the durable floor ONLY
to highestAccepted (never past it) and propagates the error — the chain HALTS at an un-appliable
block rather than diverging. Losers are pruned + the serving cert stored only on a full clean
accept. This kills the divergence at its source (defense-in-depth even after the VM-side fix
that makes finalized-empty blocks appliable). Existing finalize/cert/accept/view-change/RED
suites green.
Co-authored-by: Hanzo Dev <[email protected]>
zeekayandHanzo Dev
83fad2dd6d