- The system would serve as the last stop for parties to resolve smart contract issues
- A hierarchical system of blockchain courts will handle disputes and emergency upgrades
CEO and cofounder of Matter Labs Alex Gluchowski tweeted a proposal for an Ethereum court system analogical to the US Supreme Court on Sept. 2. It would serve as the last stop for parties to resolve smart contract issues instead of going to a traditional court or lawyer.
According to him, this system would safeguard protocols from external political inference. It would serve as a mechanism to deter it as well as enhance the role of Ethereum as a powerful network component.
Blockchain court system will handle disputes
A hierarchical system of blockchain courts will handle disputes and emergency upgrades. An Ethereum “Court of Final Appeal”, a layer-1 soft fork, would be the final stop.
In this system, each protocol would have independent governance with regular and emergency upgrade mechanisms. A special contract would trigger an appeal.
An appeal period would apply to every emergency upgrade to a protocol, during which any user can file a dispute with the higher court. They would have to pay a preset fee as a bail deposit.
Each court would specify the higher court to appeal to. For example, Uniswap, Aave and similar protocols would contest matters in JusticeDAO or CourtUnchained. Decisions made by those courts can be appealed to the Ethereum Supreme Court.
Strong consensus needed
As the proposal is akin to a centralized system, a strong consensus would be needed for it to work. The Matter Labs CEO conceded that the system would be costly and it would review only “truly extraordinary” cases due to this.
Such a system is needed in his opinion because the existing dispute resolution systems are not effective. For instance, it’s not reasonable to enable time-locked features in emergency situations. Letting a security council intervene can help ease the problem, but won’t solve it.
Gluchowski stated that a security council could put a temporary freeze on a contract, but the assets could be stolen by an ill-meant majority of under-collateralized stakers.
He puts his money where his mouth is, assuring he and the team at Matter Labs’ zkSync would be happy to finance research into the proposal.
