I like this approach, speaking from a very general perspective (very uneducated regarding hardware, comparatively). Absolutely brings back memories of the 90s a

I like this approach, speaking from a very general perspective (very uneducated regarding hardware, comparatively). Absolutely brings back memories of the 90s and arguments regarding open vs closed source and "security through obscurity". Security through obscurity doesn't work, ultimately. When economic stakes are / were lower, it CAN have benefits. At this point, I suspect it's likely that more eyes and openness is better. That said, I do think that the best solution is likely to be based in a mixture of approaches, much as has been pursued (to my knowledge) and developed over time already. However, personally, I'm a big fan of "formal methods" and seeing more real-world deployment of such methods. In practice, as has been done that I've seen, you start with small & critical subsystems, trying to design for "parsimony" - making formal methods and everything else more realistic / practical (e.g., "microkernels", everyone's favorite 'solution' since the 80s, at least). But, it's all very challenging because then it has to be balanced against performance, cost, etc. Not sure this comment adds much, here - again, not an area I have much direct knowledge or experience in - but, your comment did bring some analogous areas and work I'm more familiar with to mind.