Renowned layer 1 blockchain Sui has announced today that it is set to become the first blockchain to enable the most secure modern alternative to the Border Gateway Protocol. This protocol routes data packets between the independent networks that form the Internet.
The announcement follows Sui’s integration with SCION, a unique security protocol for network validators. Notably, SCION’s launch on Sui’s testnet will help the blockchain provide validators with a comprehensive defense against Internet routing attacks that have caused significant downtime on other networks.
While the Sui blockchain is already renowned as the most secure and reliable Layer 1 blockchain, with 100% uptime since its main net launch, this development will further fortify its strength and security as it aims to address the risks to Web 3.0 at the layer of the underlying Internet infrastructure.
A Modern Alternative to Border Gateway Protocol
According to the announcement, SCION’s launch on the Sui network follows plans to provide validators with a modern alternative to the long-existing Border Gateway Protocol.
The Border Gateway Protocol came into the limelight in the late 1980s, a period when there were high concerns about achieving scalable global routing without considering security.
While this protocol curtailed certain security concerns at the time, it has failed to match its pace with the rapid evolution of the Internet and has not been efficient in managing the increasing risks induced by this growth over the years.
Due to this lack of security, malicious actors have been able to reroute traffic toward their infrastructure and then either drop it or, worse, impersonate the intended communication partners.
Following efforts to remediate this, the Sui blockchain is excited to reveal its potential emergence as the first blockchain to provide a comprehensive defense against this class of attacks, as no blockchain has been able to provide such a solution so far.
Sui will be able to achieve this because of its integration with SCION, which will radically alter the way the Sui network finds paths toward external destinations. Sui leverages cryptography to ensure that it cannot be influenced by unauthorized parties, making the attack ineffective against Sui.
With this unique development, validators on the Sui network will be provided with more resilient consensus participation, more available state sync, and robustness in the case of IP DDoS attacks.
Unlike the Internet Protocol (IP), which is used to send and forward packets in the current Internet, a SCION-enabled Sui node can select among multiple paths towards the intended destination and encode their choice in the packet’s header.
Notably, SCION’s support for the simultaneous use of multiple paths allows Sui nodes to serve different types of traffic over different paths, such as assigning consensus and sync to different network paths with different properties.
George Danezis, Co-Founder and Chief Scientist at Mysten Labs, a member of the team behind the propaation of the technology commented on the development saying; “SCION is the security layer that the Internet desperately needs: it is built from the ground up with security in mind.”
“With the integration of this technology, Sui will be the first blockchain to provide validators with access to a next-generation internet that is cryptographically protected against attacks,” he added.
