Osmosis Mesh Security - Emperor Osmosis

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Author: Emperor Osmosis

Source: Twitter Thread

Date: 9/26/2022

@sunnya97 Dropped 🔥  at #Cosmoverse

Mesh Security will leverage the economic strength of $OSMO to secure the Cosmos.

How Liquidity will Define Security in the Cosmos.

The best way to explain this is to create contrast of networks to political models..

This gives us a guidance on what we hope to accomplish economically and politically.

With that said, how should the Interchain look?

As this tweet from @sunnya97 put it, we seek to avoid centralization and seek consensus across the Interchain.

What we seek to avoid is a recreation of Centralized system

$DOT calls these Para Chains

$ETH refers to them as roll ups

Cosmos rejects this model...

Political systems Coordinated by Consensus lead to like IBC

are effective in creating communication networks.

We see this everyday in the Cosmos.

✔  Chains can effectively speak to one another

But...

❌Fail at Scaling the interchain.

IBC already is a MESH of communication

Chains can talk to one another efficiently

But how can we apply this layer of connectivity to Securing the Network?

To help understand this model, we need to observe real world examples of Security

Take for example NATO

✅A network of SOVEREIGN nation states

✅Providing Security to each other

✅All with their OWN governance

This MESH Security Alliance has secured the world.

So where does Interchain Security come in?

And where does this Mesh come into play?

Let's break it down…

Interchain Security V.1

$ATOM validator set fully validates another chain.

@Neutron_org

However as you expand this model...

It leads to a "Hub and Spoke" model which leads to some efficiencies but it also leads to a lack of...

❌Sovereignty ( Same Validators in each chain)

Interchain Security  V.2

👉A subset of the validator set can choose to validate in 1 chain

👉Parallel to "Sharding"

👉More Scalable

👉Governance is not utilized as proficiently

But again...

❌No Sovereignty

Interchain Security V.3

✅ @osmosiszonehas their OWN validator set

✅Defined by $OSMO Staking

✅Securing is amplified by $ATOM Stakers

✅Sovereignty is achieved

However...

❌Still a Hub and Spoke Model

Along comes Mesh Security !

Through Mesh Security Osmosis gains economic viability as it can

✅Be a Consumer chain and gain security from $ATOM

✅Also lend security to the Cosmos Hub 🤯

As adoption of this model ensues this pattern of bilateral security would follow👇

$ATOM 🔁$OSMO🔁JUNO

Creating a true Mesh Network of Security.

How will this work?

🔥By leveraging the overlap of validators in the Cosmos

Allow me to elaborate further...

A simple example of overlap

👉75% of $OSMO Validators are running $JUNO Validators

👉72% of $JUNO Validators are running $OSMO Validators

This can be defined as "Soft Security"

An "unspoken" rule protecting chains with sharing validators against misbehavior.

The idea here is to codify this concept of "Soft Security" through Cross Staking!

But what is Cross staking?

Cross Staking

Imagine our friends at @notionaldao validating on @osmosiszone and @JunoNetwork

They could submit transactions with correlated identities

What if @notionaldao was to misbehave?

Would result on slashing both chains

So why would any validator want to run this risk?

Efficiencies yielding Incentives 💰

1️⃣ IBC can be used to send information

2️⃣ Boosting staking rewards to incentivize adoption

These are economic synergies created when two sovereign states trade with one another.

I.e. The US provides tech services and China provides raw materials.

A synergy is created where both SOVEREIGN nations benefit!

So if every Validator on @osmosiszone and @JunoNetwork was to adapt this model wouldn't it lead to Centralization of the network?

No and here's how…

Capping voting power!

👉Prevents an overtaking of the chain by larger validators

👉An increase in delegations will dilute Voting Power

As Delegations reach saturation, your voting power caps but the economic benefits to the network continue to scale.

But....

How do you choose which other chains to cross stake with?

The Economics Basis of Mesh Security

Countries with high levels of economic integration usually have high levels of security integration

How do we translate this into the Interchain? ⚛

A perfect example is Osmosis 🤝Mars Protocol

✅Economic Interdependent

✅Building a joint leveraged trading product

✅One benefits the other (Liquidity ➡ Lending)

Where does this lead us?

Ecosystems which have Economic Interdependencies would benefit from #MeshSecurity.

Security relationships will match Economic relationships between blockchains.

In the end...

Liquidity will be what defines Security in the Cosmos🧪

Thank you for reading!

I hope you've found this thread helpful:

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