Sequencer Level Security (SLS)

As a developer building on Zircuit, you benefit from our Sequencer Level Security (SLS) protocol that protects your applications and users at the infrastructure level. Unlike traditional blockchain security that relies on post-execution measures, we've built protection directly into our sequencer to prevent malicious transactions from ever reaching your smart contracts.

What We've Built for You

We've fundamentally reimagined blockchain security by moving protection upstream in the transaction lifecycle. Instead of dealing with malicious transactions after they've caused damage (requiring hard forks or block reversions), our sequencer actively monitors the mempool and prevents harmful transactions from being included in blocks in the first place.

How Our SLS Protocol Works

When you deploy on Zircuit, your applications automatically benefit from our three-layer security system:

1. Malice Detection

We analyze every transaction before it reaches your contracts:

• Parallel Simulation: We simulate each transaction against the current blockchain state

• Advanced Detection: Our AI-powered algorithms use program analysis, machine learning, and rule-based methods to identify threats

• Dependency Analysis: We understand how transactions interact with each other to detect complex, multi-step attacks

• Block-Level Analysis: We evaluate the combined effects of all transactions within a proposed block

2. Quarantine System

Rather than rejecting suspicious transactions outright, we quarantine them:

• Time-Based Release: Transactions can be released after a specified period

• Failure Criterion: Transactions that would fail due to state changes are safely released

• Administrative Override: Our security experts can manually release false positives

• Smart Retirement: Invalid transactions are automatically removed from the mempool

3. Controlled Execution

We ensure smooth operation when quarantined transactions are released:

• Released transactions follow standard sequencing rules

• We prevent duplicate quarantining of resubmitted transactions

• Your applications continue running without interruption

Current Implementation Status

We're currently operating with conservative quarantine periods and manual release processes. This cautious approach ensures maximum security as we prove our system's effectiveness in production. Contact us on Discord for assistance with quarantined deposits.

Best Practices

While we provide robust sequencer-level security, we recommend you continue following standard security practices:

• Conduct thorough security audits of your smart contracts

• Implement proper access controls and validation

• Consider SLS as an additional security layer, not a replacement for good engineering

Learn More

Sequencer Level Security Deep Dive