Blocksense Network

Hello dear readers, today I have prepared for you an article that I created as a result of my research about the Blocksense network, which has made a name for itself lately and will continue to do so. Enjoy reading it.

What is Blocksense?

Blocksense is a decentralized and permissionless protocol for the efficient creation and consumption of oracle data feeds, designed as a ZK rollup.

How does Blocksense produce accurate data?

Blocksense ensures the accuracy of data production through cryptography and game-theoretic incentives. The network is operated by a large number of data reporters who have a stake in the protocol and run the Blocksense oracle node software. At each time interval, each oracle data feed is updated by a random subset of the reporters. The reporters publish what they have obtained as the value of the oracle at the given time. Reporters are rewarded if their choice agrees with the majority of other reporters (depending on the data feed, this means having either equal or close enough value) or penalized if their choice differs. Since the selected subset of reporters is both random and secret, collusion is unlikely, and the most rational strategy for everyone is to publish the correct value (if you choose to lie, it would be difficult to guess what other reporters interested in lying are voting for, so a majority is very unlikely to form).

This mechanism is known as the Schelling Coin principle and for detailed information about the Schelling Coin principle, you should take a look at this article.
https://blog.ethereum.org/2014/03/28/schellingcoin-a-minimal-trust-universal-data-feed

Why is Blocksense designed as a ZK rollup?

The network implements its efficient consensus mechanism based on the Schelling Coin principle, generating tightly packed data update blocks that can be published on the target chain with a single transaction. Each block is accompanied by a zero-knowledge proof, ensuring adherence to protocol rules for data production and majority stake backing. This design significantly reduces data publishing costs and simplifies the introduction of new data feeds.

How does Blocksense prevent bribery and collusion?

The Blocksense network utilizes the advanced features of zero-knowledge proving systems to implement two crucial aspects of the protocol:

1. Secret committee election: Nodes responsible for updating a specific data feed are selected randomly and in a concealed manner. Each node knows only its own membership in a committee and remains unaware of others in the same committee. This complicates collusion and bribery attempts for malicious actors as they lack knowledge of their targets.
2. Vote secrecy: Nodes' updates are concealed, and only aggregated results are publicly revealed. Nodes cannot prove their votes without revealing a secret, making bribery challenging as the actor providing the bribe cannot ensure compliance. This ambiguity makes it difficult to determine who complied or defected in bribery attempts when the overall goal fails.

Is the network subject to 51% attacks?

Blocksense, like many other proof-of-stake decentralized networks, is susceptible to 51% attacks where malicious actors control a significant portion of the voting power. However, Blocksense has implemented measures to mitigate this risk. Voting power is determined based on both stake and reputation, with node operators gradually gaining reputation based on their performance. Smart contract creators receive user credits based on transaction volume, which can be delegated to node operators, incentivizing them to provide identity proofs and enhance their reputation. Additionally, the protocol may require a super-majority higher than 51% to accept new data feed values, balancing network correctness and liveness. These measures aim to reduce the likelihood of 51% attacks and ensure the network's security and reliability.

How does Blocksense ensure timely updates for all feeds?

Blocksense ensures timely updates for all feeds by dividing the block-publishing process among three distinct roles:

1. Reporters: They execute oracle scripts and publish data feed updates promptly. Reporters are incentivized to report accurately, as penalties are imposed for skipping updates or reporting incorrect values. Since updates are signed by a majority of reporters, individual censorship is practically impossible.
2. Aggregators: Responsible for monitoring gossip channels where reporters broadcast updates. They bundle updates and rebroadcast them. If an aggregator attempts censorship, another is likely to include the update in their bundle to claim rewards.
3. Block Builders: They combine aggregator bundles into final blocks for publishing. Block builders cannot manipulate bundle contents, ensured by zero-knowledge circuits. Blocks are valid only if enough aggregators contribute. Multiple builders can publish a block in each slot, ensuring timely updates even if a builder is offline.

Roles are dynamically and randomly assigned to node operators by the Blocksense node software, preventing potential delays or censorship in data feed updates, which could lead to on-chain price discrepancies exploitable in arbitrage trading.

How are new data feeds (a.k.a oracles) created?

New data feeds, or oracles, can be created using the Blocksense node software, which includes a sandboxed virtual machine capable of executing various tasks. To create a new feed, one simply writes a program for the Blocksense VM.
Once created, the oracle is identified by a cryptographic hash of its program contents. To initiate feed updates, any entity can deposit funds to cover initial data publishing fees. As the feed becomes actively used by smart contracts, it may become self-sufficient through on-chain data access fees.
Oracles can perform various tasks, such as downloading the contents of a URL or tracking exchange rates by querying multiple sources. In the future, zero-knowledge circuits may enhance security by authenticating data obtained from SSL-enabled web servers.
For computationally heavy tasks like GPU scripts, a specialized strategy involving heavy penalty-inducing randomized checks by a larger committee can be implemented for a small subset of data feed updates. This allows cost-effective implementation of use cases such as machine learning inference on-chain.

Which chains are targeted?

The blocks produced by the Blocksense network will be published on multiple chains. The zero-knowledge proofs ensuring the authenticity of the data can be verified on any EVM compatible chain, as well as on chains based on WebAssembly or eBPF run-times.


Don't forget to follow Blocksense social media accounts for more details.
website https://blocksense.network/
Twitter https://twitter.com/blocksense_
Telegram https://t.me/BlocksenseNetwork