Time-Delay Locks Could Prevent Bridge Bugs: Rootstock Co-Founder
A recent incident on the Liquid Network highlights the risks of unauthorized withdrawals from Bitcoin bridges. About 4,000 BTC left the federation wallet through an unauthorized peg-out, but a time-delay lock could have prevented this.
Rootstock co-founder Sergio Lerner believes that mandatory withdrawal delays would give bridge operators several hours to identify and stop unauthorized withdrawals. Currently, Liquid's system does not report a stolen Peg-out Authorization Key, and SideSwap said it processed the request because the L-BTC appeared valid.
Lerner points out that immediate settlement can turn a single validation error into a loss before bridge operators have time to respond. 'Without a time-delay lock, a single validation bug and a total loss become the exact same event,' he explained.
Rootstock's PowHSMs wait 4,000 blocks, or about 36 hours, before signing a peg-out. Lerner said compromised Rootstock functionaries could halt the peg but could not force an early withdrawal.