Serialization

SimpleSerialize follows simple byte conversion, making it effective and efficient for encoding and decoding

Serialization encodes the data into Bytes32 chunks for merkleization.

SSZ provides serialize and deserialize methods for

• Basic types i.e. integers, Booleans,
• List and vectors of bits, known as BitLists and BitVectors,
• Lists and Vectors of type_serializable,
• Containers with type_serializable fieds,
• Unions of serializable types

"Type Serializable"

An object that can be serialized is of type_serializable

serializable can be thought of as a trait

Given a type T, we write T : Serializable if T extends (or "inherits" or "is a") Serializable.

Each type T:Serialiable should offer two functionalities:

• Serialize:

  • serialize<T> : T -> seq<bytes>
  • Returns a sequence of bytes when applied to an object of type T

• Deserialize:

  • deserialize<T> : seq<bytes> ~-> T
  • Returns an object of type T when it is possible to deserialize a sequence of bytes in an object of type T

Given two objects O1:T and O2:T where T <: Serializable, the pair of functions (serialize<T>, deserialize<T>) should be:

• Involutive: deserialize<T>( serialize<T>(O1) ) = O1
• Injective: serialize<T>(O1) = serialize<T>(O2) implies that O1 = O2