Security Council

Overview

The primary goal of the Scroll Security Council is to safeguard the security, integrity, and efficient operations of the Scroll zkEVM rollup. The Security Council acts as a decentralized governance body, overseeing protocol upgrades, emergency responses, and other critical decisions impacting the Scroll ecosystem. It acts as an 9/12 multisig and safeguards the protocol using certain Emergency and Non-Emergency permissions:

1. Non-emergency protocol upgrades
   1. Includes routine software and protocol upgrades, routine maintenance, and other parameter adjustments.
   2. At inception, these upgrades are executed manually. Non-emergency upgrades are almost always voted on first via the governance process. Then, pending a successful vote, the Security Council executes these protocol upgrades manually.
2. Emergency protocol upgrades
   1. The Security Council can skip the governance process to make an emergency upgrade to the protocol. They would then be required to report on this activity after-the-fact to the community.
   2. These situations might include (but are not limited to) any incidents that may impact the security or liveness of the Scroll chain that require protocol upgrades.
3. Full admin controls over the governance system
   1. The Security Council serves as the admin to the Governance contracts, meaning that they have the ability to change almost anything in the governance process to ensure the correctness / safety of Scroll governance. Read more about the Governance admin in Governance Process .

Responsibilities & Accountability

Security Council members shall have these general responsibilities:

• Approve and implement protocol upgrades as directed by governance.
• Act promptly during security threats to safeguard the Scroll protocol.
• Work with development teams and other stakeholders for smooth execution of tasks.
• Conduct regular rehearsals for new ceremonies and protocol upgrades, coordinated by the Up Labs team.
• Exercise emergency powers to initiate emergency upgrades.

In addition, these are measures to ensure accountability of the Security Council:

• Regular evaluations of member performance based on adherence to responsibilities and overall contribution.
• Transparent reporting on actions taken during emergencies.
• Proving continued access to keys and active participation through periodic liveness checks.

Security Council Membership

Security Council is intended to be comprised of 12 participants — each a signatory in the 9/12 multisig, with no more than 2 persons from the same or affiliated organization. Members have been thoughtfully selected for their (1) technical competency (and proficiency in rollup and Scroll technology), (2) reputation as trusted individuals/entities with demonstrated alignment with Scroll’s vision, (3) geographic diversity, and (4) aligned incentives (i.e. no conflicts of interest).

The members of the Security Council are divided into two cohorts, Cohort A and Cohort B. Cohort A shall have an initial term of 18 months, with subsequent terms of 12 months each. Cohort B shall have an initial term and subsequent terms of 12 months each.

At the end of term of each Cohort, the members of that Cohort may be re-appointed and new members may be appointed by Scroll Foundation. During the term of the Cohort, members of the Security Council may be removed by Scroll Foundation, where it is deemed necessary to safeguard the best interest of the Scroll DAO and Scroll Foundation.

Initial members of the Security Council will be publicly announced and listed here as the Council is finalized in the coming weeks.