Bringing Modular Security to Interchain Governance

Recently, major DeFi protocols like Uniswap and Aave started exploring the landscape and viability of interchain governance. They both face the challenge of fragmented governance and UX across their isolated multichain deployments. So despite all the hacks and drama around bridges, interchain interoperability is still the only solution to unifying onchain governance across their increasing deployments.

The key questions around interchain governance:

1. How can governance be conducted across all these isolated deployments?
2. How do we make sure it’s secure?
3. How do we make it future proof + without vendor lock-in?

TLDR

Here’s Hyperlane’s take on it:

• Multi-bridge architecture is the basic, recognized solution to secure interchain governance. We take it even further with Hyperlane’s unique Modular Security approach to interop.
• Hooks, Hyperlane’s latest innovation, allows you to seamlessly integrate other security options, such as native L2 bridges and 3rd party bridge providers.
• Hyperlane’s Aggregation ISM enables you to combine security from multiple ISMs.
• For the governance use case, external providers like Wormhole, Axelar, LayerZero, etc. can be easily integrated using Hooks, and require x out of y bridges to verify messages using the Aggregation setup. Messages can also be routed through native L2 bridges when available. This design protects against the failure of any specific bridge/interop provider.
• Developers can access both multi-bridge aggregation AND native bridges using one Hyperlane API call.

Multi-Bridge Architecture is the Future?

Uniswap and Aave conducted independent bridge assessments and both concluded that multi-bridge architecture was the best solution for secure interchain governance. Quick takeaways from their findings:

Uniswap’s Take

The Uniswap Foundation Bridge Committee conducted an extensive bridge assessment, evaluating 6 bridges and approving only Wormhole and Axelar (conditionally). The main conclusion though was much more nuanced:

“The Committee concluded that a multi-bridge architecture is the most suitable option for Uniswap’s future cross-chain governance. However, these solutions are not yet ready for production.

The Committee suggests that a multi-bridge solution should consist of at least three bridges in the bridge set, assuming a 2-of-3 quorum, to derive meaningful benefits from the architecture.

Furthermore, the Committee recommends using multi-bridge solutions for L1 and side-chain deployments. However, for L2s, the Committee believes that native L2 bridges should continue to be utilized.”

TLDR → Uniswap wants a multi-bridge framework. Specifically, they want to use the native/canonical bridge when possible or multi-bridge setup if not possible to avoid any single bridge compromise. But solutions weren’t mature enough at that time. This is where Hyperlane comes in.

Aave’s Take

Aave conducted their own research, noting that multichain Aave governance living only on Ethereum was inadequate, “So a communication layer of governance decisions was a must.”

They recognized the existing limitations on Aave cross chain governance, mainly:

• Skeptical of the vendor-lock-in and security dependency when choosing between external bridge providers. As a result, they’ve been exclusively using native bridges..
• The reliance on native bridges is leading to friction in expanding to new chains that don’t have native bridges (Avalanche for example).

Aave reached a similar conclusion as Uniswap, and built a solution in-house, called a.DI (Aave Delivery Infrastructure). a.DI is a multi-bridge abstraction layer that requires consensus from multiple bridges to verify messages. In cases where all bridges are down, they include an emergency recovery mechanism which Aave governance on Ethereum can trigger. At the moment, the initial bridge set includes Hyperlane, Chainlink CCIP, LayerZero, and all available native bridges.

Hyperlane’s Modular Solution

Uniswap and Aave have both been waiting for more secure interoperability solutions to support their interchain governance visions. Importantly, they’ve specifically wanted to avoid individual bridge risk and vendor lock-in. The existing interoperability landscape didn’t fill those needs, so Uniswap opted for a temporary solution and Aave opted to build their own.

Now with Hyperlane’s Modular Security approach featuring Hooks and Interchain Security Modules (ISMs), the multi-bridge + native bridge architecture becomes easy for anyone to implement with minimal to no code.

So what would a Hyperlane-powered multi-bridge solution look like?

You’re a DAO that wants secure interchain governance and minimum integration work. Hyperlane enables you to assemble your custom multi-bridge solution right out-of-the-box:

• Wrap and leverage native bridges and 3rd party bridges through Hooks
• Routing ISM allows you to route messages through different ISMs for different chains. So native bridges when available, and Aggregation ISM with 3rd party bridges when not available.
• The multi-bridge part: For chains without native bridges, an Aggregation ISM allows you to require X out of Y those 3rd party bridges to reach consensus in order to verify messages.
• Interchain Accounts enable you to interact with every chain, from one chain. No contract deployment necessary.
• A DAO based on Ethereum can conduct and execute governance on every remote deployment with just one API call.
• Many Hooks and ISMs are already pre-built for anyone to leverage out-of-the-box, so minimal integration work. And if you’re not satisfied with the existing options, you can easily integrate your own Hooks or build your own custom ISMs.
• You can easily plug in or swap out different ISMs, effectively making Hyperlane users future proof as more advanced security options like light clients get implemented as ISMs.

More in depth reads on Hooks here and on ISMs here.

One Interface to Access Every Bridge

The combination of customizable Hooks and ISMs opens up new avenues for you to build your ideal interoperability solution. Think of Hyperlane as the singular interface to access and compose any bridge, any interoperability provider, any interchain security innovation, with one API call. The modular architecture makes it seamless to plug in new bridges or security innovations so you’re future proofed and not locked-in to any vendor.

Final Thoughts

• Yes, there are some drawbacks to the multi-bridge setup. More bridges means more gas costs and slower finality. But when it comes to governance, security is the highest priority. A worthy tradeoff for this specific use case.
• The next question is: would multi-bridge architecture work for interchain use cases outside governance, like DeFi, considering the drawbacks?
• One use case could be value-based security, where you only use one bridge provider for small transactions, with more bridges/security required if larger transaction. Hint: you can customize this security routing logic using Hyperlane Routing ISMs!
• We’ve been exploring this interchain governance use case for a while, including our Tally integration which brings the familiar Tally interface and interchain voting capabilities to any chain. The multi-bridge setup will be a natural expansion of this.

If you’re interested in implementing this multi-bridge architecture with Hyperlane, start with our Hooks and Aggregation ISM docs, and always feel free to reach out to the team on Discord.

More about Hyperlane

Hyperlane is the first Permissionless Interoperability layer, enabling anyone to connect any blockchain, out-of-the-box. With Hyperlane, developers can build Interchain Applications, apps that abstract away the complexity of interchain interactions and serve users on any connected chain. Additionally, Hyperlane’s modular security stack gives developers the power to customize their interchain security. Hyperlane development is open-source and led by core developers at Abacus Works.

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