Security of Avalanche Subnets
I saw so many misunderstandings in the crypto ecosystem. And this is one of them. Everyone creates counter-propaganda against their competitors. I am not sure it is intentional or not. But, I deep dive into important things to find the truth. It is a big mistake not to take action against these things by officials.
Anyways. The main reason that I’m writing this is it was hard to find my answer. That’s why I decided to spread it more.
I saw 2 opposite things many times: “Subnets inherit the security of Avalanche’s primary network” and “Subnets are centralized and not safe.” As you can guess both of them are a bit true, a bit wrong.
First: Subnets inherit the security of Avalanche’s primary network!
Yes, validators CAN validate subnets and subnets can inherit the security of the primary network. But will they? It depends on them. If a subnet provides enough reward, validators might want to validate it as well. But it is not a feature every subnet has.
There can be countless subnets and validators can’t catch all of them up even if it would be quite profitable. So, even though it is partly, subnets can bring validators to their subnet to validate and gets the security of the primary network. It is like buying a Volvo car to have safer rides. If I can afford it, I can have it. Could I? We’ll see :)
Second: Subnets are centralized and not safe
Yes, if they can’t get enough validators, it is true. But if they provide enough reward to have more than 20 validators, we can call them decentralized and safe. It is up to you to say “it is decentralized” after how many validators.
I mean, Polygon has 5/8 mutlisig, which means 5 accounts have severe control over the network. But we call them “decentralized”. On the other hand, Binance Smart Chain has only 21 validators and we call it decentralized too. Solana and Avalanche both have +1k validators and it is enough to be highly decentralized.
After 8 validators, you’re better than Polygon, after 21 validators, you are better than BSC, after 50 validators, I can call you decentralized enough, for now.
Ideal Go-To Subnet Strategy
Opening a subnet cost 3 AVAX (~$250) but you need at least 1 validator to validate your subnet. But it makes you 100% centralized. If you can’t start more decentralized than Polygon, you better not start.
In my opinion, as a fresh project, you may start the project on the primary chain and grow. After you have enough maturity to provide capital for validators, you can start your subnet with at least 11 validators.
You would be still partly centralized but definitely better than Polygon. Not just because your number of validators is greater than 8, any validator can join your subnet without your permission! It is a huge deal!
If you are a project like Axie Infinity, you can start with more than 50 validators, I think. By the way, Axie has its own chain called Ronin. They have 9 active validators and 4 of them are the company itself. BUT, they can transfer their entire blockchain into a subnet and have 5–10x more validators than they have now!
I hope I could help a bit. It was hard to find these answers. Do not believe, do your own research if it is important to you. That’s how I learned Solana is decentralized! People make me believe that it was centralized. Not fair.
This world is not binary, it is complex. Everything has its own pros and cons. To find out what they are, I am sorry, you have to research a lot. Because misinformation spreads faster than truth.
Keep safe, keep smart, keep simple. And enjoy your life. Bye!
