Optimistic ISM

Prioritizing safety over liveness

OptimisticISM is coming soon and is not yet implemented. This page is shown for informational purposes only. Details may change as the design matures.

The OptimisticISM encodes the optimistic verification security model pioneered by Optics and adopted by Synapse, Nomad, and Connext.

OptimisticISMs rely on a fraud window after message verification, during which m of n watchers configured on the OptimisticISM have an opportunity to flag messages as fraudulent, preventing them from being delivered to their recipient.

This security model prioritizes safety over liveness; the increased message latency allows for the addition of a second layer of security, the watchers, without significant increases in gas costs.