Matter Labs co-founder proposes 'Ethereum Supreme Court' for on-chain disputes

cointelegraph.com:

Matter Labs co-founder and CEO Alex Gluchowski has proposed an Ethereum court system resembling a hierarchical court system similar to the real world.

In a Sept. 2 post on X (Twitter), Gluchowski floated the idea for an “Ethereum Supreme Court” — which would work similar to the United States Supreme Court — serving as a final stop for parties to dispute smart contract issues rather than needing to take matters to a traditional lawyer or court.

“The most important function of such a system will be to protect protocols against political inference from the outside. It will serve as a great deterrence mechanism, and will elevate the role of Ethereum as a powerful network state,” said Gluchowski.

Smart contract implementation risks remain the biggest unsolved problem of Defi. L2s are equally affected.

Let me pitch an idea: L1 Fork as the Court of Final Appeal.

First, why existing solutions don't work:

1) Time-locked upgrades are great for scheduled changes, but… pic.twitter.com/EcaogkZBH9

According to Gluchowski’s concept, disputes and emergency upgrades would be handled by a hierarchical system of on-chain courts. The final stop, however, would be an Ethereum layer-1 soft fork as the “Court of Final Appeal.”

Gluchowski said that in this system, every protocol would have its own governance with normal and emergency upgrade mechanisms, and would also designate a special contract which can trigger an appeal.

When there is an emergency upgrade to a protocol, there would be an appeal period, during which any user can submit a challenge to the higher court. However, they’ll have to put up a pre-defined bail deposit.

Each court specifies the higher court to appeal to, with the Ethereum Supreme Court serving as the final destination for