Bluzelle, a blockchain firm offering decentralized database services for Web3, has discovered a bug in the Tendermint consensus. This is the algorithm used by the Cosmos protocol to run its interchain ecosystem. Though not a Cosmos sidechain, Bluzelle is built using the Cosmos SDK hence hosted on Tendermint.
The bug was discovered during Bluzelle's validator's competition that took place in June, attracting 220 participants. Notably, participants had to halt the competition since the bug prevented Tendermint's consensus process, causing validators to freeze. In efforts to go back on the network, the blockchain restarted, and a new genesis assigned to the validators. This, however, did not yield fruit, given the problem persisted, which eventually prompted Bluzelle to take action. A follow-up bug report by Bluzelle highlights that,
"Due to the severity of the bug, Bluzelle was compelled to file an extensive bug report with Tendermint outlining their findings."
Following the alarm, Tendermint created and implemented a fix for the bug towards the end of last week. Also, the firm filed cybersecurity vulnerability entry with the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE), which operates a global database for such information.
Neeraj Muraka, the co-founder and CTO of Bluzelle, has since said that the bug presented a more significant opportunity despite derailing their validator competition,
“We really strained our blockchain with many tests and a high validator count. I am proud that we were able to uncover this bug and provide all the information needed to help the Tendermint team to solve it will undoubtedly lead to important refinements, and prevent the bug from being replicated in a live environment."
Going forward, Bluzelle is optimistic about leveraging the Cosmos Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol, which is still in pipeline to connect with other chains. It is also quite noteworthy that Bluzelle’s main network went live as recent as April and could, therefore, create an opportunity for more improvement on the Tendermint consensus.