SNS decentralization swap trust

If you participate in an SNS decentralization sale of an SNS launch to get a share of the SNS DAO’s voting power, you should convince yourself that the dapp that you invest in and the SNS DAO are trustworthy. As this is also in the dapp developer’s interest, they should provide all information that allows you to verify their dapp and the SNS configurations. If you cannot or do not want to verify everything yourself, but still decide to participate in the SNS decentralization sale, you should be aware that you are implicitly trusting the NNS community and the developers that offer their dapp for decentralization.

This page describes which verification steps or which trust is at least required when participating in an SNS decentralization sale. It does so on a high level, as the detailed required steps depend on the dapp that is being decentralized. You can find more detailed information on how to [verify the SNS decentralization sale proposal] that is needed to start an SNS decentralization sale on a separate wiki page.

Verify the SNS canisters

Why?

You should make sure that you are in fact interacting with a real SNS and that the SNS canisters run trustworthy code, as otherwise they could steal the tokens that you invest.

Background

All SNS canisters run on a dedicated SNS subnet. The only canister that can install an SNS is an NNS canister called SNS-W. It will only install SNS canisters with code (WASMs) that have been pre-approved by the NNS. Also, it will always set the controllers of the canisters in a predefined way so that the SNS canisters control each other except for the SNS sale which is controlled by the NNS. SNS canisters can be upgraded during the SNS launch, but at all times the SNS canisters can only be upgraded to version that are pre-approved by the NNS. The NNS frontend dapp launchpad only displays real SNSs that are installed on the SNS subnet.

Verification

Verify that the canisters that you interact with are indeed SNS canisters. This is one of the most important things to verify, as otherwise you could send your tokens to canisters that are not trusted and might steal your tokens.
Verify the SNS canisters’ controllers. As mentioned, the SNS canisters will be set up with predefined controllers. If you don’t verify this, then you trust the NNS in that the SNS-W code initialized the SNS correctly and in that the SNS canisters’ code (that has been approved by the NNS) do not allow changing controllership after initialization.
Verify the SNS canisters’ WASMs. As mentioned, the SNS canisters are installed with and can only be upgraded to WASMs that have been pre-approved by the NNS. If you don’t verify the SNS canisters’ WASMs you trust the NNS community that they only approved trustworthy WASMs.
Verify the SNS canisters’ configurations. Each SNS can be set up with custom configurations. It is important to verify these configurations as they influence, for example, who controls the dapp during the SNS launch and can still upgrade it, as well as who can get how many voting power after the SNS launch. They also determine the rules of the DAO that you will be member of after participating, for example under which conditions can vote and how much voting rewards it will get.

Verify the SNS sale parameters & the initial token distribution

Why?

As already explained, it is important to verify the SNS canister’s configurations. The sale parameters can be seen as part of these configurations. They are mentioned explicitly here because they are fundamental for the SNS launch and because are set by the proposal that starts the SNS sale (while other configurations are set when the SNS canisters are first installed).

Background

If a single party gets more than 51% of the voting power after the SNS launch, they have full control over the dapp. This means, in particular, that they can change the dapp’s content or steal the ICP in the SNS’s treasury. There is no sybil resistance in an SNS decentralization sale. This means that a single party can participate in the sale with multiple principals and get more voting power than it appears. Therefore it is impossible to verify that a 51% does not occur. Nevertheless, it is possible to make some other checks that would make this harder or less likely.

Verification

In the SNS’s initialization and in the NNS proposal that starts the SNS decentralization sale, it is defined how many tokens are given to developers, kept in the SNS treasury, given out as airdrops, and sold in the decentralization sale.

It is also defined how much the Community Fund is asked to invest in the decentralization sale. Verifying these numbers is important to understand the initial token distribution and who can have how much voting power after the sale. This also determines who you have to trust wrt 51% attacks.

For example, if less tokens are sold in the sale than what is needed to get 50% of the voting power, it is harder for an outside attacker to get 51% of the voting power.
For example, if the developers or other initial investors get a large portion of the initial tokens, it is easier for them than for others to get 51% of the voting power but also participating in the sale. Therefore, depending on the settings, it might be required to trust those initial investors.
The SNS sale has parameters that influence how many tokens one principal can get and how many principals have to participate in the sale for it to be successful. You can verify those parameters in the sale’s settings. Even though this will not help verifying that no sybil attacks occurred, it might still be useful to verify them.

Verify the dapp canisters

Why?

It is important to verify the dapp canisters as this is the product that you invest in when you participate in a decentralization sale for this dapp’s SNS.

Background

The dapp that is being decentralized in the SNS launch might consist of multiple canisters. This might also include an asset canister that serves the asset that you see when you interact with the dapp’s frontend.

Verification

Verify all canister’s controllers. The dapp canisters should be controlled by the SNS root canister or by other dapp canister that is in turn controlled by SNS root (this can also be over a longer chain of control that leads to only the SNS root at the top). This ensures that the dapp canister cannot be changed in a malicious way. If you do not check this, you trust the dapp developers that they correctly handed over the dapp to the SNS.
Verify the dapp canister’s WASM. To make sure that the dapp canisters are trustworthy you should verify the code that they run. Otherwise you trust the dapp developers with this fact. Some things to watch out for are to verify that the canisters do not have any “backdoors”, for example methods that can be called from the outside, maybe just by some defined principals that would then have centralized control over this method call.

For some privileged methods that should only be invoked by an SNS proposal, you should verify that the code enforces that these methods can only be called by the SNS governance canister. Verify that there are no changes to the dapp canisters that are governed by SNS root during the decentralization sale. During the decentralization sale, the developers can still upgrade the dapp canisters, and add or remove new canisters to their dapp. This means that either you have to verify that the dapp canisters are not upgraded and changed anymore after you verified their code or you trust the developers that they only make secure changes.

Verify that the dapp canisters have a clean state. Most dapp canisters will be deployed by a centralized party and then just handed over to an SNS. Even if these canisters’ control is handed over to an SNS DAO, they might still contain malicious state that is preserved over upgrades. Therefore, to fully trust a canister you would also have to convince yourself that after it is handed over to the SNS DAO its state has been cleaned up. Alternatively, you trust all the previous controllers of the dapp canisters (e.g., the original developers).
Verify the asset canister.

The asset canister has a list of principals who can update assets. Once the asset canister is handed over to an SNS DAO, it should be configured such that this list of privileged principals can only be changed by SNS proposal. You should verify that this is the case. You should also understand which people own the privileged principals and you have to trust them not to upload malicious assets.