The Implications of Running a Consumer Chain

Blockchains are secured through the economic incentives offered to their validators/miners. The more robust the network effect among validators, the more difficult it is for that blockchain to be compromised. However, building a truly decentralised and reliable validator set is not a trivial task. As a result, hub and spoke ecosystem designs like Cosmos’ (and even Polkadot’s), aim to share the main hub’s validator set and security to their ‘consumer’ chains (parachains in Polkadot’s case). Neutron relies on interchain queries, interchain accounts and interchain (replicated) security to deliver the most secure CosmWasm smart contract platform in the Cosmos ecosystem.

We were joined by Avril Dutheil, GM at Neutron, to discuss Neutron’s smart contract platform and how it leverages replicated security (ICS) and interchain accounts (ICA).

Topics covered in this episode:

• Avril’s background and the value prop behind Neutron
• Practical examples
• Interchain accounts and different use cases
• Interchain security
• Atom hub vs. Polkadot relay chain. Onboarding and security models
• Offboarding Cosmos consumer chains
• Replicated security vs. Modular blockchains
• Neutron’s token utility and governance

Episode links:

• Avril Dutheil
• Neutron on Twitter

This episode is hosted by Felix Lutsch & Meher Roy. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/504