Cryptoeconomic Security for Data Availability Committees
Data Availability Committees (DACs) increase the throughput of Layer 2 systems – but at the cost of obtaining an L2 architecture whose security relies solely on the L1 chain. Ertem Nusret Tas (Stanford) introduces DACs and their shortcomings, and then proposes a DAC protocol that provides financial incentives to deter the DAC nodes from adversarial behavior (such as withholding data upon request). He then analyzes the interaction of rational DAC nodes and clients as a dynamic game, with a Byzantine adversary that can corrupt and bribe the participants. He also defines a notion of optimality for the DAC protocols, inspired by fairness and economic feasibility. The main result shows that the protocol is optimal and guarantees security with the highest possible probability under reasonable assumptions on the adversary.
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