[Checklist] How Permissionless is Your Interoperability Provider?

Permissionless-ness Matters for Interoperability

In a permissioned interoperability world, you’re at the mercy of the interop core team:

• You need to lobby them for a chain connection. And if they say no, your chain is DOA.
• The teams are kingmakers since they decide which chains are connected.
• Centralization of decision power and validator/relayer infra leads to more rug-ability and censor-ability by the team, intentional or not.
• Unchecked centralization reduces the potential crypto economy attack surface to a few permissioned interop protocols.

All this gatekeeping is the same shit as tradfi/web2. What are we even doing here? The deeper you look, the more you realize how many decisions are restricted, permissioned, and ruggable by the permissioned interop teams.

Let’s expand on the “How Permissionless” framework from our last post.

The “How Permissionless?” Checklist

Some key questions to ask yourself when reviewing interoperability providers. The more permissioned/centralized they are, the more you should be wary.

1) Can I connect a chain myself?

• Do I need permission from the team?

2) Is the codebase closed source?

• (what are they hiding?)

3) Can I run my own infra?

• Do I need to lobby their validator cartel for support? Do I have to use their validators in the first place?
• Can I participate in protocol security and run my own validator?
• Can I run a relayer myself? Do I need permission?
• Can I be censored by the interop provider? Ex: Do they have the power to rug my message delivery?

4) Can I control my own security model?

• To what degree do you control your security:
• Monolithic/shared security.
• Customizable but limited options.
• Fully modular/option to build your own security.

5) Is there protocol-level enforcement of the social contract?

• Is there slashing if validators commit fraud?
• Can someone bypass the social contract and rug me?

So how Permissionless is Hyperlane? (With Pictures)

1) You can permissionlessly deploy Hyperlane anywhere

• Permissionless Interoperability enables you to deploy Hyperlane anywhere, anytime, without needing permission from a Hyperlane team or any external parties.
• You can Self-Deploy Hyperlane out-of-the-box to any EVM chain right now (with Solana VM, Fuel VM, Cosmos SDK module, and CosmWASM support all on pace to be live by end Q3).

2) Hyperlane is completely open-source

• All Hyperlane smart contracts + off chain agents are open-source
• Anyone can use, review, and contribute to Hyperlane

3) You can permissionlessly run any Hyperlane infra yourself

• No need to lobby validators for support, run your own. Especially relevant on permissionless deployment chains where recruiting validators takes time, you need to be able to run your own validators/relayers at deploy.
• Run your own Hyperlane validator to participate in protocol security.
• Run your own Hyperlane relayer to guarantee your interchain messages are delivered.
• Since you can run your own validator/relayer, your messages are uncensorable.

4) You can fully customize and compose your security

• With Hyperlane’s modular security stack, you can mix, match, and stack interchain security modules (ISMs). Kinda like building with composable security legos.
• Hyperlane offers multiple pre-built ISMs for ease of use.
• Not satisfied with our pre-built selection? Hyperlane also enables you to build your own ISMs and plug them right in.

5) Hyperlane has protocol-level enforcement of fraud

• Staking and slashing are coming to Hyperlane soon, which means protocol-level enforcement of validator fraud.
• Unlike many interchain protocols, Hyperlane’s slashing protocol will use verifiable fraud proofs to independently verify if a validator signed a fraudulent checkpoint, eliminating the need for trusted parties. No honest majority assumption.
• With fraud proofs + slashing contract implemented on the protocol-level there is an unavoidable cost to fraud.

Learn more about how Hyperlane + Permissionless Interoperability can level up your chain/rollup/app here.

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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