storage-benches

Performance comparison of two Ethereum execution client storage stacks wrapping libmdbx 0.13.x:

Layer	reth	signet
Raw MDBX bindings	reth-libmdbx	signet-libmdbx
Typed hot DB	reth-db	signet-hot-mdbx

Quick Start

# Full run (bindings + hot DB)
./run_benches.sh

# Quick mode (~10 min, ~5% noise)
./run_benches.sh --quick

# Subset
./run_benches.sh --bindings   # B1-B7 only
./run_benches.sh --hotdb      # H1-H6 only
./run_benches.sh B2           # filter to a specific group

Prerequisites: Rust toolchain (edition 2024, MSRV 1.92), Linux x86_64.

Methodology

All benchmarks use Criterion.rs 0.5 with deterministic, seeded pseudo-random data (shared bench-shared crate, seed 0xBEEF_CAFE_DEAD_F00D). Both sides use matched MDBX configuration: 1 GB max, SafeNoSync, WRITEMAP, NO_RDAHEAD, 4 KB pages.

Compilation uses opt-level = 3, lto = "fat", codegen-units = 1 to minimize measurement noise.

Two run modes:

Mode	Warmup	Measurement	Notes
Quick	1 s	3 s	Parallel, ~5% variance
Sequential	2 s	5 s	No parallel, authoritative

See METHODOLOGY.md for full details on data generation, environment configuration, fairness controls, and benchmark design.

Benchmarks

Part 1: Raw Bindings (B1-B7)

Compares the Rust wrappers around the same C library. Signet provides both sync and unsync (!Send, !Sync) transaction types; reth has sync only.

Benchmark	What it measures
B1 Transaction creation	Wrapper overhead: mutex, channel, Arc vs raw pointer
B2 Point reads	1,000 random gets on 100K entries (32B, 256B, 4KB values)
B3 Batch writes	N upserts/appends in a single RW txn (N = 100, 1K, 10K)
B4 Cursor iteration	Full forward/reverse scan over 100K entries
B5 Range queries	Seek to midpoint + 1,000 entries forward
B6 DUPSORT	Per-key dup reads, full scan, DUPFIXED page-batched scan
B7 Commit latency	Commit cost at batch sizes 1, 100, 1K, 10K

Key finding: Sync-vs-sync performance is identical (same C library). Signet's unsync transactions are the differentiator: 286x faster RW txn creation, 1.6-2.2x faster cursor scans, 87x faster single-item commits. DUPFIXED page-batched scan is 3.4x faster (signet-only feature).

Part 2: Hot DB Layer (H1-H6)

Compares the typed abstraction layers with serialization codecs, table schemas, and cursor management. Each side uses its idiomatic API (reth = sync txns, signet = unsync txns).

Benchmark	What it measures
H1 Account reads	1,000 random lookups on 100K PlainAccountState (100% hit, 50% miss)
H2 Storage slot reads	1,000 random DUPSORT lookups (10K addrs x 10 slots)
H3 Header reads	Random + sequential access on 10K headers
H4 Block ingestion	Write 100 accounts + 500 slots + 1 header per block (1, 10, 100 blocks)
H5 Full table scans	Complete iteration over accounts (100K) and headers (10K)
H6 Mixed workload	Simulated block execution: reads + writes + commit, 10 blocks

Key findings:

• Signet wins scans: 2.4x faster full account scan (fixed-size codec + unsync cursors)
• Reth wins random DUPSORT: ~20% faster storage slot lookup (signet's exact_dual does a redundant B-tree traversal — tracked as ENG-2126)
• Mixed workload: reth 10% faster in production path; signet 4% faster with cursor reuse

Summary

Category	Winner	Magnitude
RW txn creation	signet	286x
Small commits	signet	87x
Cursor iteration	signet	1.6-2.2x
Full account scan	signet	2.4x
DUPFIXED scan	signet	3.4x
Point reads	signet	6-36%
Random slot lookup	reth	20%
Mixed workload (production)	reth	10%
Mixed workload (cursor reuse)	signet	4%
Large batches / headers	~tied	<3%

Neither side is categorically faster. Signet wins sequential and transaction-heavy workloads via unsync transactions. Reth wins random DUPSORT access due to a fixable redundant traversal in signet's exact_dual.

Results

• RESULTS.md — quick mode results
• RESULTS_SEQUENTIAL.md — sequential mode results (authoritative)
• ANALYSIS.md — detailed analysis with root cause explanations
• FUZZ_RESULTS.md — fuzz and proptest results for signet-libmdbx
• results/ — raw Criterion output

Project Structure

├── crates/
│   ├── shared/          # bench-shared: constants + data generators
│   ├── reth-bench/      # B1-B7 bindings + H1-H6 hot DB for reth
│   └── signet-bench/    # B1-B7 bindings + H1-H6 hot DB for signet
├── results/             # raw benchmark output
├── run_benches.sh       # benchmark runner script
├── METHODOLOGY.md       # detailed methodology
├── BENCH_SPEC.md        # original benchmark specification
├── RESULTS.md           # quick mode results
├── RESULTS_SEQUENTIAL.md # sequential mode results
└── ANALYSIS.md          # detailed analysis