UMA integrates with Forta to monitor oracle operations

Article by Forta Network Mar. 30, 2022

Forta is happy to announce that UMA is using Forta detection bots to decentralize and bolster its oracle dispute process. 

UMA is an optimistic oracle for Web 3, allowing smart contracts to ask almost any question and trust the answer. UMA’s oracle is used by projects like Perpetual, BadgerDAO, Sherlock and Across Protocol. 

The optimistic oracle is effectively an asynchronous oracle where prices are requested and then anyone can propose a resolution in response. It’s important that when resolutions are proposed that there are disputers waiting to dispute those proposals if they are incorrect. 

Because disputing incorrect proposals is a core operation of a healthy oracle, UMA runs several disputer bots and hosts a proposal and dispute web interface to ensure that there will always be someone disputing incorrect proposals. But for something as critical as disputes, redundancy is paramount. Ideally, there are many independent disputers alongside UMA bots monitoring proposal activity and disputing when necessary. 

UMA is running detection bots on Forta that serve the role of a bot – monitoring for dispute opportunities. When the detection bot finds a dispute opportunity, Forta emits a public alert about the price discrepancy, for example, to encourage actors in the community to challenge the proposal.

“It is critical for our decentralized network of disputers to see data proposals within the challenge window to prevent bad data from being returned by the optimistic oracle. Forta gives us independent alerts about requests and proposals that make it easy to respond even if our other systems go down,” said John Shutt, Senior Engineer at UMA. 

UMA is also using Forta to monitor its governance module, access controls of the Risk Labs Foundation that builds on the protocol, and token mint activity related to voting rewards. 

You can find and subscribe to UMA’s oracle dispute alerts and more using app.forta.network.

Another UMA ecosystem project, Across Protocol, has an open RFP for Forta coverage as well. The Forta monitors will help participants in the Across network identify deposits that can be relayed and relays that can be disputed. This ensures that relays are quick and safe even if other infrastructure goes down. In addition, they will help the Across community identify statistical trends in the use of the protocol that will help them improve user experiences. Learn more here.  

About Forta

Incubated by OpenZeppelin, Forta is the first decentralized network delivering real-time intelligence on the security and health of Web3 core infrastructure and dApps. Protocols, DAOs, investors and individuals can use Forta to receive real time insights on security, financial, operational and governance related events on L1s, L2s and sidechains. 

Learn more about Forta by visiting forta.org or reading the documentation at docs.forta.network

About UMA

UMA is an optimistic oracle that uses economic guarantees to secure markets. Unlike mechanically restrictive price feed oracles, an optimistic oracle is able to serve any arbitrary data on-chain. UMA’s flexible oracle serves data for uses including a cross-chain bridge, insurance, custom derivatives and prediction markets among other things.

The UMA Protocol also provides various smart contract templates that are automatically secured by its optimistic oracle. Among these are contract templates and integrations for creating synthetic tokens, predictions markets, “KPI options” and structured financial products.

Learn more about UMA by visiting https://umaproject.org/