Researcher: TBD
Summary
The aim of this initiative is to create a market for sequencers that distribute pre-confirmations to users and applications. To accomplish this, we must first determine the existing costs of pre-confirmations.
This research will thus contribute the following:
- A model for a market where sequencers distribute pre-confirmations
Background & Problem Statement
Background
Core background concepts/definitions are as follows:
Pre-Confirmations (preconfs):
Pre-confirmations are a growing concept in the rollup space. Many rollups offer pre-confirmation of their blocks before they are committed, i.e. before they are sent down to a data availability (DA) layer. Some mechanisms for enabling pre-confirmation of rollup blocks are as follows:
- Soft finality is guaranteed over rollup transactions before they are posted to a DA layer based on the consensus between node operators on a shared settlement layer or sovereign rollup. This only works for rollups where transaction settlement occurs on a separate layer from the DA layer.
- Sequencers are required to post collateral that can be penalized by the rollup if they do not post the block to the DA after a certain timeframe.
Technical details of various pre-confirmation models can be found in the references attached at the end of this document.
Pre-confirmations act to speed up the user experience. Based rollups, for example, can offer pre-confirmations. Justin Drake of Ethereum Research states that Based preconfs offer a competitive user experience for based sequencing, with latencies on the order of 100ms.
However, pre-confirmations have a limited security model, as there is a limited ability to make guarantees to many participants simultaneously.
Problem Statement
The problem here is that the benefits of pre-confirmations are not adequately capitalized upon with existing markets. Moreover, there is a limited amount of pre-confirmations that can be given simultaneously.
Thus, the question that this research aims to address is as follows:
- How much do pre-confirmations cost?
- How can pre-confirmations be distributed by sequencers?
Plan & Deliverables
Expected outputs/deliverables are as follows:
- A greater understanding of how pre-confirmations are currently priced
- A model for a market where sequencers distribute pre-confirmations to users and apps
The plan for achieving this output is outlined below:
Experiment 1: Determining costs of pre-confirmations
To address the first research question above, we will look at data from various rollups to understand the costs of existing pre-confirmations.
Experiment 2: Developing a model for a pre-confirmations market
Using the data from the experiment above, we will create a pre-confirmations market wherein sequencers distribute pre-confirmations to users and protocols alike in a manner that is fair, secure, and accurately priced. Thus, users and protocols can benefit from faster experiences as they interact with rollups, thanks to pre-confirmations.
References
How to Participate
If you’re a researcher who believes that you would be a good fit to contribute to any of the Composable RFPs, please reach out to Composable’s Lead Research Associate, Sydney Sweck, at sydney@composable.finance. In the email, be sure to include:
- The RFP number(s) you’d like to contribute to
- Your relevant background experience
- How you think you could contribute to the research