docs: add docs for gas markets. (#1174)

Author: raulk

docs/fendermint/gas_markets.md

@@ -0,0 +1,114 @@
+# Gas markets
+
+In IPC, gas markets are algorithmic entities that determine key aspects of transaction pricing and dynamics within
+subnets. Starting from the axon-r06 release, subnets can freely customize their gas market, as long as they adhere to
+the standard actor interface defined below. This interface will evolve over time to accommodate new capabilities and
+features.
+
+## Capabilities
+
+Starting from the axon-r06 release, gas markets can update the base fee and the block gas limit.
+
+The **base fee** is applied during state transitions, and is used to calculate the network fee to execute a message
+per gas unit. This portion of the transaction fee is burnt by sending it to the f099 burn address within the subnet.
+Note that, today, these amounts remain at the f099 address in the subnet, and are counted towards the circulating
+supply of the subnet (as seen by the parent). In the future, we plan to physically burn these amounts in the subnet
+and notify the parent so that (a) the supply source is updated, and (b) these amounts are removed from the circulating
+supply accounting.
+
+The **block gas limit** is the maximum cumulative gas limit across all transactions in a block. This limit is enforced
+by the consensus layer, so updating it via the gas market actor will cause us to notify the consensus layer
+accordingly.
+
+## Gas market actor
+
+Gas markets are deployed as on-chain Wasm actors that implement a standard interface. The gas market is a singleton
+actor deployed at ID address f098 on the subnet.
+
+In axon-r06, the standard gas market interface is quite simple. It revolves around two interactions:
+
+1. Acquiring the current reading of the gas market.
+2. Updating the current utilization of the gas market (and returning the updated reading).
+
+The following Rust code defines the standard interface for gas markets.
+
+```rust
+/// A reading of the current gas market state for use by consensus.
+pub struct Reading {
+    /// The current gas limit for the block.
+    pub block_gas_limit: Gas,
+    /// The current base fee for the block.
+    pub base_fee: TokenAmount,
+}
+
+/// The current utilization for the client to report to the gas market.
+pub struct Utilization {
+    /// The gas used by the current block, at the end of the block. To be invoked as an implicit
+    /// message, so that gas metering for this message is disabled.
+    pub block_gas_used: Gas,
+}
+
+/// The trait to be implemented by a gas market actor, provided here for convenience,
+/// using the standard Runtime libraries. Ready to be implemented as-is by an actor.
+pub trait GasMarket {
+    /// Returns the current gas market reading.
+    #[frc42(method_name = "CurrentReading")]
+    fn current_reading(rt: &impl Runtime) -> Result<Reading, ActorError>;
+
+    /// Updates the current utilization in the gas market, returning the reading after the update.
+    #[frc42(method_name = "UpdateUtilization")]
+    fn update_utilization(
+        rt: &impl Runtime,
+        utilization: Utilization,
+    ) -> Result<Reading, ActorError>;
+}
+```
+
+## Default gas market: EIP-1559
+
+IPC ships with EIP-1559 as the default gas market, with constants identical to Filecoin mainnet's.
+
+Here are the constants, their roles in this algorithm, and their default values:
+
+| Constant                          | Description                                                                                        | Default value |
+|-----------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------|
+| `block_gas_limit`                 | The block gas limit, as defined above.                                                             | 10M (^)       |
+| `minimal_base_fee`                | The minimal base fee floor when gas utilization is low.                                            | 100 atto      |
+| `elasticity_multiplier`           | Elasticity multiplier as defined in [EIP-1559](https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-1559).           | 2             |
+| `base_fee_max_change_denominator` | Base fee max change denominator as defined in [EIP-1559](https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-1559). | 8             |
+
+(^) Matching the Filecoin block gas limit. As defined
+in [FIP-0032](https://github.com/filecoin-project/FIPs/blob/master/FIPS/fip-0032.md#gas-sizing-baseline), Filecoin sizes
+gas by adopting a baseline of 10 gas/nanosecond of wall-clock time, or 1 milligas/10 picosecond. This baseline follows
+from the need to sustain a 30s epoch by validating and applying unique messages in a tipset, with a block count
+following a Poisson distribution (win rate), with a 10B block gas limit, assuming 6s of block propagation time. Since
+IPC inherits the FVM, which encodes these assumptions, we keep the block gas limit equal. That said, it is worth to note
+some differences: (a) Tendermint consensus produces a single block per height, while Filecoin produces multiple blocks
+per epoch (usually oscillating between 4-10); (b) IPC subnets usually tick much faster than Filecoin (30s per epoch);
+(c) IPC is impacted by lower execution overhead than Lotus (Filecoin's reference client) as it doesn't need to traverse
+an FFI boundary to access the state store.
+
+### Setting the constants
+
+Developers can set the EIP-1559 constants through two mechanisms:
+
+1. At genesis, currently
+   by [patching the initial state tree construction](https://github.com/consensus-shipyard/ipc/blob/702d49b619623915772fe935a86e59a89744c3b1/fendermint/vm/interpreter/src/genesis.rs#L443).
+   In the near future we intend to provide an API to set these constants, so that forking and patching is no longer
+   necessary.
+2. Updating the constants at runtime through an on-chain message. By default, this message can only be applied during an
+   upgrade through the UpgradeScheduler, since the original implementation enforces the sender to be the system actor (
+   f00). However, developers can set a different authorized addressed, such as an EOA, a multisig, or a smart
+   contracts (e.g. DAO, timelock, etc.) This requires patching the actor code.
+
+## Custom gas markets
+
+Developers can deploy a custom gas market by implementing the `GasMarket` trait in a Wasm actor, and replacing the
+default gas market at actor ID `f098`. This can be done at genesis, or in a network upgrade through the
+UpgradeScheduler.
+
+## Caveats
+
+1. Updating the block gas limit in a block containing other transactions leads to undefined behaviour. Always perform
+   this update in isolation, and at the end of the block. The new block gas limit is applied from the next block
+   onwards.