Chainbound, a crypto research and development company, recently raised $4.6 million in seed funding for its project, Bolt.
Bolt Protocol: Overview and Goals
The Bolt protocol aims to tackle Ethereum's current confirmation delays, which average around seven seconds. Using preconfirmation technology, Bolt assures transaction confirmations within a second. This reduction in confirmation time could revolutionize how users and applications interact with Ethereum. Chainbound's goal with Bolt is to create a more efficient and user-friendly Ethereum ecosystem, enhancing both user experience and the platform's resistance to censorship.
How Bolt Works
Bolt operates out-of-protocol, using restaking to provide economic assurances. This design does not alter Ethereum's existing block production pipeline but integrates seamlessly with it. The protocol is structured to function in an optimistic failure mode, allowing proposers to breach commitments but incurring penalties for such breaches. This approach ensures that commitments remain credible and reliable. The core principles of the protocol are: * **Trustless**: No new trusted entities are introduced, and commitments are supported by economic assurances. * **Credible**: Proposers are held accountable for their commitments, with breaches resulting in penalties to reinforce system credibility. * **Permissionless**: Any proposer can participate in Bolt, allowing any user to request commitments without needing a central authority. * **Compatible**: Bolt is designed to work with the existing Proposer-Bidder Separation (PBS) pipeline and will eventually be compatible with enhanced PBS (ePBS). The integration requires only a minor adjustment to the MEV-boost and the addition of a sidecar.
The Concept of Preconfirmations
Preconfirmations are a new approach to transaction processing in Ethereum, proposed by Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake. They enable transactions to receive confirmation before being added to a block, which can otherwise take from seven seconds to several minutes. Preconfirmations come in two forms: * **Inclusion Preconfirmations**: These guarantee that a transaction will be included in a block if it complies with protocol rules. They are particularly useful for transactions such as transfers, mints, and approvals. Key benefits include instant preconfirmations for transactions, reduced execution risks for liquidity bridges and app-specific sequencers, and enhanced settlement guarantees for rollups. * **State Preconfirmations**: These commit to specific state transitions, significantly improving Ethereum's user experience. While challenging to implement due to the need for proposer opt-in, state preconfirmations could shift Ethereum’s transaction processing from a discrete to a continuous mode, limited only by network and processing speeds rather than consensus delays.
With sub-second confirmations, users can expect a much more responsive and efficient blockchain experience. Bolt's compatibility with existing systems means its integration into Ethereum's infrastructure will be smoother, accelerating its market adoption according to the Chainbound team.
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