Matter Labs co-founder and CEO Alex Gluchowski has proposed an ethereum court system similar to the real-world layered court system.
In a Sept. 2 post on X (Twitter) by Gluchowski floating The idea of an “Ethereum Supreme Court” — which would operate similarly to the U.S. Supreme Court — would serve as a last stop for parties to dispute smart contract issues without taking the issue to traditional lawyers or courts.
“The most important function of such a system is to protect the protocol from external political influence. It will serve as a powerful deterrent mechanism and will enhance Ethereum’s role as a powerful cyber state.”
Smart contract implementation risk is still the biggest unsolved problem of Defi. L2 is also affected.
Let me offer an idea: L1 Fork as the final court.
First, why the existing solutions don’t work:
1) Time-limited upgrades are great for scheduled changes, but… pic.twitter.com/EcaogkZBH9
— Alex G. ∎ (@gluk64) September 2, 2023
According to Gluchowski’s concept, disputes and emergency escalations would be handled by a hierarchical system of on-chain courts. However, the last stop will be the Ethereum Layer 1 soft fork as the “court of final appeal”.
In this system, each protocol would have its own governance, with normal and emergency upgrade mechanisms, and would also designate a special contract that would trigger an appeal, Gluchowski said.
When the protocol is urgently escalated, there is an appeal period during which any user can challenge it to a higher court. However, they must post a pre-determined bond.
Gluchowski said that each court designates an appeal to a higher court, with the Ethereum Supreme Court being the ultimate destination for challengers.
Let’s chat. The main idea of this article is this: any human-driven court should not have the final say. The final appeal must always be the L1 fork.
— Alex G. ∎ (@gluk64) September 2, 2023
An example of a court level is where protocols like Aave and Uniswap dispute cases in courts like CourtUnchained or JusticeDAO. Following these court rulings, a party can appeal to the Ethereum Supreme Court.
Glukhovsky acknowledged, however, that a strong social consensus is needed for an on-chain court system to function.
It would be expensive, so only “truly extraordinary” cases would be referred to it, he added.
“[It will need to be] It deserves the attention of the entire Ethereum Layer-0 (social consensus).think of a mistake @Uniswap, The main L2, Defi protocols with systemic risks, etc. “
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Glukhovsky noted that there are several existing solutions to such disputes, but he doesn’t think they are effective.
For example, enabling a time-lock feature on a smart contract is not suitable for emergencies, and introducing a safety committee can alleviate the problem, but not solve it, while also introducing risks.
“The council can only temporarily freeze the contract, requiring token governance approval for emergency upgrades. But now, most malicious stakers who are undercollateralized may do nefarious takeover upgrades and steal all assets,” he explained.
Gluchowski said he and the team at zkSync, an ethereum layer 2 scaling solution created by Matter Labs, would be happy to fund research on the proposal.
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