Vitalik Buterin’s Debate With Solana Founder Resumes After Almost Year

Solana Labs’ co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko has unexpectedly resumed a dialogue with Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin on bridge security after almost a year. Then, at the end of May 2022, blockchain activists were discussing how to possibly detect and prevent attempts to cheat a system that allows funds to move between different networks by illegally using the same money multiple times.

The dialogue between Yakovenko and Buterin stalled then, but the two sides agreed that a social layer of bridge management could, in theory, solve any problems. However, both figures also acknowledged uncertainty about how secure such a system would be, especially during a 51% attack.

Because what if 51% attack

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) May 31, 2022

Yakovenko bridge

Solana’s founder puzzled over the solution for a year, he says, and may have finally found it. Thus, Yakovenko proposed a trust-minimized bridge between independent Layer 1 blockchains, a design that ensures that local users will be able to pull their bridged assets back into the local chain, even if the remote chain has an unfair majority, withholds data or conducts a 51% attack.

A full description of Yakovenko’s bridge can be found in a tweet by Solana’s co-founder. The key points of the solution are to hold auctions when problems arise to decide who can fix them. Apart from that, people using the system will have to wait for confirmation before they can use their money. If something goes wrong, people will be able to submit a challenge to get access to their data.

Vitalik Buterin has not yet responded to his colleague’s proposal.