Exploring Diverse Security Models of Cosmos Hub: New Strategies for Blockchain Security

Recently, the product manager of Cosmos Hub initiated a discussion on the community forum regarding the consumer chain joining mechanism, proposing two new solutions: permissionless and lightweight permission. This initiative aims to accelerate Cosmos Hub's positioning in the inter-chain security field to respond to competition from other solutions.

Previously, the Cosmos Hub introduced the "replicated security" mechanism through the V9 Lambda upgrade, allowing its security to be leased to consumer chains, enhancing the value capture capability of ATOM. However, the replicated security model requires each validator to run all consumer chains, limiting its application scope.

The two newly proposed solutions are:

1. Fully permissionless solutions based on transactions:

   • Developers can initiate consumer chains by submitting transactions to the Cosmos Hub.
   • The validator independently chooses to join the new chain
   • The security of the Blockchain increases with the number of validators.
   • The advantage is simplicity and openness, while the disadvantage is that developers need to actively communicate with validators.

2. Lightweight Permissioned Selective Joining Scheme:

   • Developers need to submit governance proposals to start the Blockchain.
   • Validators decide whether to support through voting
   • After the vote passes, supporters automatically become part of the new blockchain.
   • Utilize existing governance mechanisms, but raise the entry threshold.

In addition, the "Top-N" scheme is mentioned, which requires that the top n% of validators must run the consumer chain, while other validators can choose to join or exit.

These new solutions are theoretically less secure compared to existing replication security, but offer more flexibility and options. Cosmos Hub is exploring various security models to meet different needs while enhancing ATOM's value capture capability.

In the future, Cosmos Hub may adopt a diversified security strategy, including various forms such as replicated security, permissionless access, and lightweight permissions, to accommodate different security needs and provide more value capture opportunities for ATOM. This diversified strategy reflects the innovative trends in the blockchain security field, as Cosmos Hub actively responds to market changes and technological developments.