Ed Felten, co-founder and chief scientist of Offchain Labs, which built Arbitrum, said that no evidence of fraud has been submitted on Arbitrum since the mainnet was first launched with built-in security features in August 2021.
Arbitrum’s interactive multi-round fraud proofs operate as Ethereum layer 2, allowing layer 1 validator contracts to decide whether a challenger’s fraud-proof submission is valid. If so, fraudulent validators’ stakes will be slashed.
A fraud proof is submitted when a challenging validator believes that another validator fraudulently or otherwise incorrectly assembled a batch of incoming transactions into the next block.
However, Felten told Cointelegraph at Korea Blockchain Week on September 4 that Arbitrum’s mainnet has yet to see fraud-proof attempts, let alone successful challenges:
“Not on mainnet. We do have one or two projects on Ethereum Proof of Work (POW). After the merger, […] There was a version of Arbitrum running on the Ethereum POW fork, and someone did try to steal all the data, and there was a successful challenge that defeated it. “
Felten said there are few attempts at fraud proofing because a malicious validator could lose their entire stake.
Felten added: “If someone notices this and disputes your claim, you’re guaranteed to lose your stake, so the incentive to try is even stronger.”
Arbitrum and Optimism both operate as optimistic summaries!
However, Optimism and Arbitrum have different approaches to fraud prevention mechanisms.
Arbitration: multiple rounds → longer confirmation times and safer
Optimism: One wheel → faster— The Smart Ape (@the_smart_ape) September 1, 2023
Felten said there is currently a group of licensed verifiers (around 12) participating in the fraud proof game.
He also added that Arbitrum is launching a new version of fraud proof called the “BOLD” protocol (Bounded Liquidity Delay), which he said provides Arbitrum with the guarantee of responding to challenges faster.
“In the current version […] An opponent who is willing to sacrifice multiple bets can arrange to cause a delay of “N” weeks if he is willing to sacrifice “N” bets […] But the BOLD agreement stipulates that no matter how many shares they sacrifice, they will be defeated in about eight days. “
related: Arbitrum founder says Stylus is a game changer for EVM
Arbitrum’s BOLD protocol was launched on August 4 by Offchain Labs.
After months of development, we announce the launch of BOLD (Bounded Liquidity Delay), a new dispute protocol that enables permissionless verification of the Arbitrum chain, potentially eliminating the need for permissioned verification, thereby significantly Improve decentralization. https://t.co/SHegVRGqXf
— Offchain Labs (@OffchainLabs) August 3, 2023
Felten said Arbitrum’s fraud-proof functionality will soon be permissionless, allowing anyone to push to ensure the correctness of the chain when challenged.
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