Specular: Towards Secure, Trust-minimized Optimistic Blockchain Execution
Fuente:
arXiv
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| Autori principali: | , , , , |
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| Natura: | Preprint |
| Pubblicazione: |
2022
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| _version_ | 1866913184949993472 |
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| author | Ye, Zhe Misra, Ujval Cheng, Jiajun Zhou, Wenyang Song, Dawn |
| author_facet | Ye, Zhe Misra, Ujval Cheng, Jiajun Zhou, Wenyang Song, Dawn |
| contents | An optimistic rollup (ORU) scales a blockchain's throughput by delegating computation to an untrusted remote chain (L2), refereeing any state claim disagreements between mutually distrusting L2 operators via an interactive dispute resolution protocol. State-of-the-art ORUs employ a monolithic dispute resolution protocol that tightly couples an L1 referee with a specific L2 client binary--oblivious to the system's higher-level semantics. We argue that this approach (1) magnifies monoculture failure risk, by precluding trust-minimized and permissionless participation using operator-chosen client software; (2) leads to an unnecessarily large and difficult-to-audit TCB; and, (3) suffers from a frequently-triggered, yet opaque upgrade process--both further increasing auditing overhead, and broadening the governance attack surface. To address these concerns, we outline a methodology for designing a secure and resilient ORU with a minimal TCB, by facilitating opportunistic 1-of-N-version programming. Due to its unique challenges and opportunities, we ground this work concretely in the context of the Ethereum ecosystem--where ORUs have gained significant traction. Specifically, we design a semantically-aware proof system, natively targeting the EVM and its instruction set. We present an implementation in a new ORU, Specular, that opportunistically leverages Ethereum's existing client diversity with minimal source modification, demonstrating our approach's feasibility. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2212_05219 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Specular: Towards Secure, Trust-minimized Optimistic Blockchain Execution Ye, Zhe Misra, Ujval Cheng, Jiajun Zhou, Wenyang Song, Dawn Cryptography and Security An optimistic rollup (ORU) scales a blockchain's throughput by delegating computation to an untrusted remote chain (L2), refereeing any state claim disagreements between mutually distrusting L2 operators via an interactive dispute resolution protocol. State-of-the-art ORUs employ a monolithic dispute resolution protocol that tightly couples an L1 referee with a specific L2 client binary--oblivious to the system's higher-level semantics. We argue that this approach (1) magnifies monoculture failure risk, by precluding trust-minimized and permissionless participation using operator-chosen client software; (2) leads to an unnecessarily large and difficult-to-audit TCB; and, (3) suffers from a frequently-triggered, yet opaque upgrade process--both further increasing auditing overhead, and broadening the governance attack surface. To address these concerns, we outline a methodology for designing a secure and resilient ORU with a minimal TCB, by facilitating opportunistic 1-of-N-version programming. Due to its unique challenges and opportunities, we ground this work concretely in the context of the Ethereum ecosystem--where ORUs have gained significant traction. Specifically, we design a semantically-aware proof system, natively targeting the EVM and its instruction set. We present an implementation in a new ORU, Specular, that opportunistically leverages Ethereum's existing client diversity with minimal source modification, demonstrating our approach's feasibility. |
| title | Specular: Towards Secure, Trust-minimized Optimistic Blockchain Execution |
| topic | Cryptography and Security |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2212.05219 |