feat: support metadata for genesis txs

[zivkovicmilos]

Description

This PR introduces metadata support for genesis transactions (such as timestamps), in the form of a new Gno genesis state that's easily generate-able.

Shoutout to @clockworkgr for sanity checking the idea, and providing insights that ultimately led to this PR materializing.

BREAKING CHANGE
The GnoGenesisState is now modified, and all functionality that references it (ex. gnogenesis, tx-archive) will need to adapt.

What we wanted to accomplish

The Portal Loop does not save "time" information upon restarting (from block 0). This means that any transaction that resulted in a Realm / Package calling time.Now() will get differing results when these same transactions are "replayed" as part of the loop (in the genesis state).

We wanted to somehow preserve this timestamp information when the transactions (from a previous loop), are executed as part of the genesis building process.

For example:

• Portal Loop chain is on block 100
• tx A results in a call to time.Now(), which returns time T, and saves it somewhere (Realm state)
• the Portal Loop restarts, and uses all the transactions it encountered in the past iteration as genesis txs
• the genesis is generated by executing the transactions
• when tx A is re-executed (this time as part of the genesis block), it should return time T, as with the original execution context

It is worth noting that this functionality is something we want in gnodev, so simple helpers on the Realms to update the timestamps wouldn't work.

What this PR does

I've tried to follow a couple of principles when working on this PR:

• don't break backwards compatibility
• don't modify critical APIs such as the SDK ABCI, but preserve existing, working, functionality in its original form
• don't add another layer to the complexity pancake
• don't implement a solution that looks (and works) like a hack

I'm not a huge fan of execution hooks, so the solution proposed in this PR doesn't rely on any hook mechanism. Not going with the hook approach also significantly decreases the complexity and preserves readability.

The base of this solution is enabling execution context modification, with minimal / no API changes.
Having functionality like this, we can tailor the context during critical segments such as genesis generation, and we're not just limited to timestamps (which is the primary use-case).

We also introduce a new type of AppState, called MetadataGenesisState, where metadata is associated with the transactions. We hide the actual AppState implementation behind an interface, so existing tools and flows don't break, and work as normal.

What this PR doesn't do

There is more work to be done if this PR is merged:

• we need to add support to tx-archive for supporting exporting txs with metadata. Should be straightforward to do
  • the portal loop also needs to be restarted with this new "mode" enabled
• we need to add support to existing gnoland genesis commands to support the new MetadataGenesisState. It is also straightforward, but definitely a bit of work
• if we want support for something like this in gnodev, the export / import code of gnodev also needs to be modified to support the new genesis state type (cc @gfanton)
  • fix(gnodev): timestamp issue on reload #2943

Related PRs and issues:

• feat(gno.land): support setting custom height/timestamp for genesis txs #2751
• RFC: shorter lifespan for testnets and enhancing portal loop #2744

cc @moul @thehowl @jeronimoalbi @ilgooz

Contributors' checklist...

• Added new tests, or not needed, or not feasible
• Provided an example (e.g. screenshot) to aid review or the PR is self-explanatory
• Updated the official documentation or not needed
• No breaking changes were made, or a BREAKING CHANGE: xxx message was included in the description
• Added references to related issues and PRs
• Provided any useful hints for running manual tests
• Added new benchmarks to generated graphs, if any. More info here.

[codecov]

Codecov Report

Attention: Patch coverage is 79.85612% with 28 lines in your changes missing coverage. Please review.

Project coverage is 63.36%. Comparing base (af05780) to head (052e3ee).
Report is 1 commits behind head on master.

Files with missing lines	Patch %	Lines
gno.land/pkg/gnoland/genesis.go	0.00%	9 Missing ⚠️
gno.land/pkg/gnoland/types.go	77.14%	7 Missing and 1 partial ⚠️
gno.land/pkg/integration/testing_node.go	20.00%	4 Missing ⚠️
tm2/pkg/sdk/helpers.go	71.42%	3 Missing and 1 partial ⚠️
contribs/gnodev/pkg/dev/node.go	86.66%	2 Missing ⚠️
gno.land/pkg/gnoland/node_inmemory.go	0.00%	1 Missing ⚠️

Additional details and impacted files

@@            Coverage Diff             @@
##           master    #2941      +/-   ##
==========================================
+ Coverage   63.32%   63.36%   +0.03%     
==========================================
  Files         548      548              
  Lines       78511    78600      +89     
==========================================
+ Hits        49719    49805      +86     
- Misses      25438    25441       +3     
  Partials     3354     3354              

Flag	Coverage Δ
contribs/gnodev	61.11% <93.33%> (+0.53%)	⬆️
contribs/gnofaucet	14.82% <ø> (ø)
gno.land	67.35% <71.79%> (+0.17%)	⬆️
gnovm	67.88% <ø> (ø)
misc/genstd	79.72% <ø> (ø)
tm2	62.51% <87.09%> (+0.10%)	⬆️

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[gfanton]

Amazing! I've made some additional modifications to gnodev locally, and I can confirm that this PR correctly fixes the timestamp issue. I also managed to get Reload, Reset, Export, and Import working for gnodev. I will open a PR asap after this one.
Good job! 👏 🎉

[gfanton]

I personally like this solution; it's simple and elegant :)
Tested and approved 👏 🚀

[moul]

Blocks are essential for maintaining a chain history.

A TxMetadata or tx-export format isn't necessary to run a chain; it's merely an intermediary format we chose because it made sense (as an intermediary format). It allows us to create genesis from an export. Since this format is not used by the chain in real-time and does not synchronize the chain, we should design it in a way that we believe is most effective for us and for tools. In my opinion, a tx-export format or TxWithMetadata should either include the missing metadata or link to the block metadata in some way. Let's strive to find the best compromise regarding size and other factors.

When we establish this new format, we should not view it as an exception for gnodev. (2cts, an exception for gnodev would be beneficial for this ecosystem, where local development should excel.) Instead, we should consider this as defining tx-export format v2 or the Gnovm-chains' tx-export format. The Genesis/InitChainer part can certainly utilize this new format rather than relying on TXs without context, which are essentially incomplete.

Regarding struct embedding and Amino, that's unfortunate. Currently, I prefer not to create an interface but to define TxMetadata as the format we want for the tx-exports tool as well, an official new type defined in the sdk/vm. I’m not sure if tx-exports currently points to std.Tx or something else, but it should point to vm.TxWithMetadata. This is not just an exception for gnodev; it’s how Gnoland and gnovm-chains can create a meaningful tx-export. So, we have gnodev, portal loop, genesis creation, and potentially other cases in the future.

[zivkovicmilos]

@moul @gfanton
I've applied the modifications to GnoGenesisState that you've requested:
335048c

Let me know what you think, and if we should go ahead

[moul]

LGTM