feat: Add ParseGenesis as initialization hook

[michaelkaplan13]

Adds a ParseGenesis hook to allow for custom genesis initialization defined by the consumer.

This allows the consumer to initialize EVM upgrade activation times, as discussed in this comment. I was able to confirm on the AvalancheGo side that providing a coreth compatible ParseGenesis implementation results in newer transaction types being support upon initialization of the SAE VM.

[ARR4N]

What kind of changes does the hook make after JSON decoding? It feels a bit weird that the genesis bytes don't include sufficient information to be unmarshalled via the standard means.

EDIT: sorry, I missed that you'd linked to the implementation. libevm extras support JSON round-tripping so why aren't they just encoded into the genesis bytes?

[michaelkaplan13]

What kind of changes does the hook make after JSON decoding? It feels a bit weird that the genesis bytes don't include sufficient information to be unmarshalled via the standard means.

EDIT: sorry, I missed that you'd linked to the implementation. libevm extras support JSON round-tripping so why aren't they just encoded into the genesis bytes?

The honest answer is because I wasn't aware/didn't think of that. 🙂

Would this work for supporting chains though? As far as I understand, the Avalanche upgrade activation times are not encoded into the C-Chain or EVM L1 genesis blocks, and instead provided from the AvalancheGo node level configuration through the snowCtx to individual chains. We could also encode the Avalanche upgrade activations in the genesis bytes of new chains, but I don't think we can add it to existing chains?

[ARR4N]

As far as I understand, the Avalanche upgrade activation times are not encoded into the C-Chain or EVM L1 genesis blocks, and instead provided from the AvalancheGo node level configuration through the snowCtx to individual chains.

That was my understanding too. So SinceGenesis.Initialize() needs to handle snowCtx.NetworkUpgrades. It might still require a hook like ApplyNetworkUpgrades(*params.ChainConfig, []foo.NetworkUpgrade) error though.

[michaelkaplan13]

Converted to draft for now until we get to align on the right approach