Are gas-limit proposals able to hamper connectivity and trigger slashes? While a governance proposal cannot directly change the Ethereum base layer's gas limit, an AVS's governance could potentially manipulate parameters of its own on-chain transactions to create a connectivity crisis. For instance, if an AVS requires frequent on-chain heartbeats, governance could set the gas cost for these transactions so high that they become prohibitively expensive for operators during network congestion. This could prevent a critical mass of operators from submitting their required proofs, leading to mass liveness slashing. This would be a form of economic denial-of-service attack enacted through governance, using the underlying blockchain's fee market as a weapon against the AVS's own operators.
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Are gas-limit proposals able to hamper connectivity and trigger slashes? This is a highly sophisticated attack vector. A malicious governance proposal could artificially lower the gas limit on a chain-specific AVS, intentionally creating a congested environment. In this congested state, honest operators might be unable to submit their required attestations or proofs within the mandated time window due to high fee competition, leading to widespread liveness failures and subsequent slashing. This would be a deliberate denial-of-service attack orchestrated through governance, exploiting the operational requirements of the network to financially penalize its validators. It highlights how seemingly benign parameters can be weaponized.
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Are gas-limit proposals able to hamper connectivity and trigger slashes? Yes. Proposals that reduce gas limits or introduce block size constraints can indirectly cause slashing by throttling message propagation or preventing validators from submitting timely attestations. If validators can't meet their protocol obligations due to artificially constrained gas limits, they may be penalized for downtime or non-participation. Such proposals are especially dangerous when implemented without warning or simulation. AVSs relying on complex inter-validator messaging are particularly vulnerable. Gas-limit governance should always include bandwidth analysis and validator impact modeling to avoid these unintended side effects
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