Unified Safe Owner Management Across Superchain

Governance Fund Missions 🏹
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Cross-Chain Safe Module System — Governance Fund Mission Application

Project Name: Unified Safe Owner Management Across Superchain

Mission: Deliver a secure, Hub-based Safe module system that enables unified owner updates across multiple Optimism Superchain chains, reducing operational overhead and friction for multi-chain Safe deployments.

Team Lead

Best Point of Contact

Team Members and Prior Work

Team Lead

Charles Emmanuel

  • Role: Lead Developer

  • Expertise: Rust/TypeScript, blockchain tooling

  • Prior Work: Lead on Ox-rollup, RetrievalTester, VoxBridge

  • GitHub: https://github.com/CodexEmmzy

Contracted / Core Collaborators

To be engaged upon award

  • QA & Test Engineering — Gospel I. (contracted)

  • Specialization: Integration testing, CI reliability

Links to Prior Work and Proof-of-Work

What Makes This Team Best-Suited to Execute This Mission?

  • Hands-on experience building developer tooling, CLIs, and CI-integrated test harnesses across Layer-2 ecosystems (Arbitrum, Filecoin tooling)

  • Practical experience with cross-chain operational patterns and edge-case testing — we build infrastructure and test harnesses that catch integration regressions early

  • Small, focused delivery model: A single technical lead plus short-term specialist contractors for documentation, QA, and outreach — fast, accountable, and cost-efficient

Proposed Solution (High-Level)

We will deliver a Safe module system that enables unified, secure owner updates across multiple Superchain chains.

Architecture Summary

1. Root/Hub Module (Hub)

A canonical authority contract deployed on a chosen hub chain (for Superchain: an agreed hub such as an OP canonical chain or a lightweight hub L1/L2). The Hub:

  • Stores canonical ownership state for a user’s module set

  • Produces authenticated update messages (signed state roots / merkle roots / consensus-signed checkpoints)

2. Child Safe Modules (Module)

Lightweight Safe modules deployed on each chain with the same Safe contract architecture. Each Module:

  • Trusts the Hub by verifying succinct proofs or authenticated messages (provided by the Hub or relayers)

3. Cross-Chain Propagation Layer

A secure relayer network (or existing Superchain messaging primitives) that:

  • Carries Hub-authenticated update messages to Module contracts

  • Modules verify authenticity and sequence numbers

  • Apply owner updates atomically

  • Emit confirmations

4. Safety & Rollback Patterns

  • Sequence numbers

  • Commitment windows

  • Optional operator-approval flows to ensure accidental or malicious rapid changes are rejected

  • Optional “2-step” mode: proposed update → require user confirmation on a primary chain (or time-lock) before applying child updates

Key Security Primitives and Design Choices

  • Authenticated updates from a Hub using on-chain verifiable signatures/roots (no centralized raw trust)

  • Hub’s updates are validated by Module contract logic (signature root verification + nonce/sequence number)

  • Replay protection via sequence numbers and per-module nonces

  • Optional optimistic verification pattern:

  • Updates applied after witnessing proof of inclusion or after N confirmations via canonical messenger

  • Modules can revert update within a short dispute window if conflicting proof appears

  • Fallback manual path: Allow module-level operator approvals for emergency recovery if messaging fails

  • Strong on-chain logging for forensic traceability and monitoring

Detailed Step-by-Step Plan and Deadlines

Start Date (if selected): November 25, 2024

Milestone 0 — Mobilization

Duration: Week 0

Timeline: November 25 – December 2, 2024

Activities:

  • Final design review with the Developer Advisory Board (DAB) / sponsors

  • Pick hub chain(s) (recommended: one canonical Superchain hub or OP main testnet for prototype)

  • Provision dev/testnet environments

  • Formalize audit and security plan

Deliverable:

  • Detailed technical spec & acceptance tests

  • Repo skeleton and CI smoke tests

Acceptance Criteria:

  • Spec and acceptance tests approved by DAB representative

Milestone 1 — Module & Hub Architecture + Prototype

Duration: Weeks 1–4

Target Completion: December 23, 2024

Activities:

  • Implement initial Hub contract and Module contract prototypes

  • Local/regtest integration harness

  • Basic cross-chain relay simulation (mock relayer) across 3 Superchain testnets

Deliverable:

  • Hub + Module prototype source

  • Deploy scripts to 3 testnets

  • Demo showing owner-update proposal on Hub and simulated propagation to Modules (testnet)

Acceptance Criteria:

  • Demonstrate owner-change propagated from Hub to Modules on 3 chains in a test environment

  • Automated acceptance tests pass

Milestone 2 — Robust Cross-Chain Propagation & Live Testnet Integration

Duration: Weeks 5–10

Target Completion: February 3, 2025

Activities:

  • Integrate with real messaging/relayer options available in Superchain

  • Use native Superchain messenger primitives if available, or an audited relayer pattern

  • Implement replay/nonce protection

  • Implement event confirmations and monitoring hooks

  • Deploy to 5 Superchain testnets

  • Run performance/latency tests (target: ownership propagation within 5 minutes across 5 chains)

Deliverable:

  • Full integration on at least 5 chains

  • End-to-end integration tests

  • Monitoring dashboards

  • Documented invocation flow

Acceptance Criteria:

  • Ownership change propagated within target window (≤ 5 minutes) across 5 chains in test environment (measured and reproducible)

Milestone 3 — Security Hardening, Audits, and Production Readiness

Duration: Weeks 11–16

Target Completion: March 17, 2025

Activities:

  • Apply for / coordinate formal audit grant (if audit grant available)

  • Remediate audit findings

  • Finalize integration guide for existing Safe deployments

  • Produce comprehensive documentation and SDKs for integrators (JS/TS + minimal CLI to submit owner updates)

Deliverable:

  • Audit report (or audit application submitted + responses)

  • Integration guide

  • SDK

  • Sample Safe upgrade PRs/examples

  • Full test suite

Acceptance Criteria:

  • Audit feedback addressed (if audit done)

  • Integration guide and SDK published

  • A pilot Safe deployment successfully updated across multiple chains

Milestone 4 — Pilot Integrations, Outreach, and Handover

Duration: Weeks 17–22

Target Completion: April 28, 2025

Activities:

  • Conduct 1–2 pilot integrations with ecosystem partners (wallets / Safe deployments)

  • Community workshop / demo

  • Public launch materials

  • Handover to maintainers or DAO multisig as appropriate

  • Provide 90-day maintenance plan

Deliverable:

  • Pilot reports

  • Workshop recording

  • Public release

  • Handover documentation

Acceptance Criteria:

  • At least one pilot integration completed

  • Community workshop delivered

  • Core contracts and docs published under open-source license

Critical Milestones Used to Determine Success

  • Milestone A: Prototype demonstrates owner update propagation to Modules on 3 chains (M1) — validates architecture

  • Milestone B: Ownership update propagation within ≤ 5 minutes across 5 Superchain chains in test environment (M2) — validates performance & messaging integration

  • Milestone C: Audit/remediation completed and integration guide/SDK published (M3) — validates security & production readiness

Additional Support Required

  • Access to Superchain testnets and guidance on recommended hub chain(s) (Optimism team support to pick canonical hub or messaging primitive)

  • Introductions to sample Safe deployers/maintainers for pilot testing (if possible)

  • Coordination channel with Developer Advisory Board for acceptance-tests review

  • Audit grant flow guidance (if audit grant flow is required): guidance for audit stipend submission or sponsor introductions to preferred auditors

Technical Approach (Concise)

Contract Design

  • Hub contract will be the canonical signer of owner-state updates

  • Hub publishes concise authenticated messages (e.g., hashed root + signature)

  • Module contracts verify those messages and map them to owner updates

Messaging

  • Integrate with optimized Superchain messaging channels where feasible (canonical messenger or OP-native cross-chain mechanism)

  • If native verified messaging is not available across chains, use authenticated relayer pattern combined with Hub-signed messages and on-chain sequence checks for safety

Anti-Replay & Safety

  • Nonces / sequence numbers per Safe instance

  • Optional time lock or confirm step

  • Local operator approval fallback

Tooling & SDK

  • JS/TS SDK for submitters

  • CLI for operational teams

  • Test harness for CI

Upstream Merge Opportunities

  • Safe protocol integrations: Provide recommended Module interface and PRs for Safe module patterns so Safe-compatible multisigs can adopt the module interface

  • Documentation PRs: For Superchain messaging examples and Hub→Module patterns to the Optimism developer docs

  • Potential merge: Small docs/examples for zebra-like approach for other tool stacks (if relevant to OP Stack docs)

Requested Funding and Grant Amount

Requested Amount: 63,000 OP (per-team maximum)

We will accept a milestone-based disbursement schedule aligned with Optimism’s policies; proposed split below.

Proposed Funding Split

  • Milestone 0 — Mobilization & spec: 6,300 OP (10%)

  • Milestone 1 — Prototype on 3 chains: 18,900 OP (30%)

  • Milestone 2 — 5-chain integration & performance: 18,900 OP (30%)

  • Milestone 3 — Audit coordination & production readiness: 12,600 OP (20%)

  • Milestone 4 — Pilot integration & outreach: 6,300 OP (10%)

  • Total: 63,000 OP (100%)

If the Foundation requires a different disbursement schedule, we will adapt to the required governance conditions; funds to be locked per program rules and subject to standard KYC / clawback conditions as described.

Why This Solution Matches the Season 8 Intent

  • Reduces multi-chain operational overhead for Safe owners by enabling single-point owner changes that propagate safely across the Superchain

  • Lowers friction for users to operate multisigs across chains, encouraging Safe multisig adoption and therefore supporting cross-chain asset movement at scale

  • Architecture is designed to be interoperable with existing Superchain messaging and is upgradeable to use canonical interop primitives as they mature

Risk Assessment (High Level)

  • Risk: Messaging volatility / upstream changes

Mitigation Strategy: Use Hub-signed messages and replay/nonce protection; maintain pinned versions and an active maintenance window

  • Risk: Reliance on relayers

Mitigation Strategy: Require on-chain confirmation; maintain multiple relayer operators and fallback windows

  • Risk: Security risk of incorrect updates

Mitigation Strategy: Use sequence numbers, optional user confirmation time-locks, and thorough testing + audit

  • Risk: Adoption risk

Mitigation Strategy: Mitigate via outreach, pilot integrations, and clear integration guides

Confirmations

Acknowledgement of program terms

  • I understand my grant for completing this Governance Fund Mission will be locked for one year from the date funds are transferred to the locked multisig wallet. — Yes, understood.

  • I understand that I will be required to provide additional KYC information to the Optimism Foundation to receive this grant. — Yes, understood.

  • I understand my locked grant may be clawed back for failure to execute on critical milestones, as outlined in the Collective Grant Policies. — Yes, understood.

  • I confirm that I have read and understand the Collective Grant Policies. — Yes, confirmed.

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Best of luck to you and your project!

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