# Presenting: Progressive Irreversibility

> *The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
> \- Albert Einstein*

What a worn-out quote ^, but it fits the situation perfectly in multiple ways. That's exactly how I feel when I see yet another smart contract exploited - worn-out. I'm simply tired of it, I feel this visceral reaction to how it restrains our industry and ruins users, over and over. Yet nothing changes.

We're all familiar with the broken security paradigm of DeFi and onchain applications, and to be clear, it's not going away. **$418,589,089 was lost** due to exploits across 59 incidents in Q1 2023[^1].

[^1]: $418,589,089 was lost in exploits across 59 incidents in Q1 2023. $3,773,906,837 was lost in exploits in 2022. Sourced from and credit to [Immunefi's 2023 Q1 & 2022 Annual Report](https://immunefi.com/reports/)

This issue is not due to a lack of sacrifice for security, from expensive audits to gated launches. From the dawn of software it has been tough to write bug-free code, and smart contracts have introduced new levels of financial exposure for product teams and their users.

At Pilot, we know it's time to try something new.

We're introducing the concept of "Progressive Irreversibility", a new security and product development model for onchain application teams that our custom L2 network enables.

## An Improved Concept

[Progressive Decentralization](https://variant.fund/articles/progressive-decentralization-a-playbook-for-building/) - the idea that centralization from launch helps product teams reach product-market fit faster. With centralization, users have more confidence a team can react quickly to security concerns, and the team can execute quicker on their product vision.

Today, most teams follow this security and product development model. While it's an improvement, it's only a half solution. Why? Because it *doesn't take away the security risk associated with their product*.

**Progressive Irreversibility** is the crucial missing aspect to this idea. Reversibility from launch helps product teams reach product-market fit faster, cheaper, and safer. Starting on a strong finality chain simply does not make sense. Before product-market fit, irreversibility is a heavily negative feature, an anchor on your product and shipping abilities.

In plain english, the Progressive Irreversibility model suggests starting on a chain with reversible transactions, and slowly migrating your product and features to a chain with irreversible transactions later in your product lifecycle.

## What's Bad About Irreversibility?

As onchain application builders since the inception of DeFi ourselves, we know it's ***insane*** to debut a product or new features on a strong finality chain. Doing so highly exposes your product's security, which does four things:

1. Risks your team's brand image in an attempt to find product-market fit. If the product is exploited you are dead in the water
2. Forces your team to freeze your codebase and spend obscene amounts of money on a product that has zero traction, and likely needs to be iterated on
3. Makes the hard task of attracting users, even harder, as they're concerned if they use your product they'll lose all their funds
4. Takes away your teams agility, as every new feature may introduce an existential bug

Yet debuting on an irreversible chain is the accepted standard... because there's **no good alternative** (yet :wink:)

## Applying Progressive Irreversibility

Pilot's network reverses any exploits that may occur on the chain, removing the downsides that surround security exposure. This enables the progressive irreversibility model to be used for earlier-stage products or features.

This boldly challenges a tenet of Ethereum and blockchains - but we believe it's a smart trade-off for teams in certain stages of their product lifecycle.

Our network creates an environment that uses real value, but has no risk of funds being stolen - perfect for experimenting with new products and features. We're *lowering the barrier to innovation!*

Note, the downside to our network's tradeoff is not trustlessness or decentralization - but instead user experience. Something we'll dive into deeper in following write-ups, so stay tuned!

### Reach Out and Follow Along!

We're excited to hear feedback, thoughts, and criticism as we continue to build and iterate on our vision. Please reach out to us in our Discord or on Twitter, and join the community discussion!

- [@Devan Purhar](https://twitter.com/iamoptmstc) & [@sam___iamm](https://twitter.com/sam___iamm)
- Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/Rs3T7CXDq9
- Follow our Twitter: https://twitter.com/Pilot_HQ