On February 12th, Offchain Labs, the organization responsible for the Arbitrum network, confirmed the launch of its innovative dispute resolution protocol, BoLD, which is now operational on both the Arbitrum One and Nova chains. This significant development facilitates permissionless validation within the Layer 2 ecosystem, thereby enhancing the overall decentralization and security of the network. By replacing the former whitelisted validators with an accessible permissionless system, Offchain Labs has expanded opportunities for participation among those interested in supporting network security.
According to Offchain Labs, the validation process on Optimistic Rollups has traditionally posed challenges. Despite the implementation of fraud proofs, the underlying chain was still susceptible to denial-of-service attacks, where malicious actors could intentionally cause delays in withdrawals and state confirmations. The introduction of BoLD modernizes the anti-fraud measures associated with Optimistic Rollups by integrating an interactive, time-sensitive dispute resolution process, ensuring that all disputes across the Arbitrum ecosystem are managed within an estimated timeframe of 12 days.