Asserts the node is live: it must advance epochs_ahead epochs (at
least 1) past its current decided epoch, and, when the chain runs the
self-building new protocol, sequence a newly submitted transaction.
Inclusion is not asserted on legacy versions because the test-only
legacy builder stops producing non-empty blocks after roughly a
hundred views, independent of any stake table activity.
Funds a fresh delegator account (ETH via anvil, ESP from the deployer)
and delegates amount to validator. Returns the delegator’s provider
so the test can later undelegate.
Waits epoch by epoch, starting at start_epoch, until the committee
reported by node/validators/{epoch} satisfies pred. Returns the
first matching epoch and its committee; panics after max_epochs
epochs without a match.