A Vendor-lock-in-free Universal Governance Mechanism for Uniswap
In this sub-proposal, we present a vendor-lock-in-free Universal Governance Mechanism (UGM) for Uniswap that utilizes multiple cross-chain protocols simultaneously. This architecture significantly enhances the security of Uniswap UGM and, at the same time, eliminates any potential alignment risks down the road.
While we believe that Celer alone can effectively solve the Uniswap UGM use case, as a long-time advocate for open protocols, we propose this solution with the best interest of the Uniswap community in mind.
Which one to choose? Wrong question!
It may seem that Uniswap’s delegates and community must make a choice to select a single cross-chain messaging protocol for Uniswap’s multi-blockchain expansion.
However, if we go down this path, it will be a TRAGIC day for Uniswap community because Uniswap, the most open dex in the world, will be vendor-lock-in to a single cross-chain protocol.
Vendor lock-in carries a multitude of risks, most notably:
- Security risk: Uniswap will be relying on a single cross-chain protocol and if that cross-chain protocol is hacked, Uniswap will also be at risk.
- Interest alignment risk: This lock-in makes it harder for Uniswap to switch out of the solution even if the interests between the cross-chain messaging protocol and Uniswap become misaligned down the road.
But are we asking the right question?
Does Uniswap have to choose one single solution between different ones or can it utilize multiple solutions to achieve a better outcome for the community?
An Open UGM for An Open DEX
Cross-chain governance use cases have the following properties:
- No room for security breaches as governance decisions are mission-critical parameters for the protocol with astronomical financial impacts
- Latency is flexible with the governance process being multi-day if not longer
- Costs are secondary due to the low frequency of governance decisions
With these properties, it is a perfect use case to utilize multiple cross-chain messaging solutions simultaneously.
We propose utilizing multiple cross-chain solutions simultaneously through the use of a “MessageProcessor” contract that acts as the executor for UGM calls to Uniswap contracts on the Binance Chain. This contract would have the following functionalities:
- The ability to receive messages from multiple cross-chain messaging solutions through one interface.
- An internal state machine to track messages received from different protocols and to release the message and trigger governance decisions only when a threshold is reached.
- The capability to remove and add different cross-chain solutions using the same UGM mechanism with potentially different thresholds.
This architecture ensures that even if a single bridge is compromised, Uniswap’s governance process remains intact. Additionally, the Uniswap community can continuously evaluate participating cross-chain protocols with all bargaining power on their side.
We believe this architecture should be implemented to avoid vendor lock-ins, even if the Uniswap community decides to use a single cross-chain solution for now. Celer is committed to a vendor-lock-in-free future and is more than happy to implement this vendor-lock-in-free UGM for Uniswap.