Decentralized finance is known for its easy money transfers, free of the intervention of a third party or bank charges. However, when we speak about the transfer of tokens between two decentralized platforms with different consensus methods, the cost of gas is astronomical. Cross-chain transactions are processed at the expense of huge gas costs based on the differences in their consensus mechanism.
To combat the issue of cost of gas for cross-chain transactions. Cross-chain bridges were designed. Bridges like these are crucial for generating growth across different blockchains and provide interoperability between assets that is secure and enhanced asset rendering.
With the increasing demand for transactions among blockchains that operate using different consensus mechanisms bridges across chains have grown in importance. They facilitate the connectivity between different peer-to peer networks with a low cost. In addition to reducing the gas costs and reducing the cost of gas, the cross-chain bridge is focused on increasing the processing speed to enhance the interactions with the cryptocurrency assets to provide a better user experience. It increases the capabilities of existing crypto assets and provides the highest level of security and privacy.
Polkadot uses a variety of strategies to make interoperability easier, among them one being via its parachains. While every blockchain isn’t a parachain, they require a secure way for communication between other chains. This is the point where Polkadot bridges are used to provide a means to exchange crypto-assets, and transfer funds between platforms with a different consensus system such as Ethereum, Avalanche, Cardano, BSC.
What is blockchain bridges?
Blockchain bridges are among the most significant technologies to facilitate interoperability between different blockchain platforms that use distinct the consensus processes, community as well as governance structures. Blockchain bridges can eliminate this distinction by providing an integrated solution that works with both blockchains to ensure effective interoperability. It aids to connect two blockchain platforms which may not be parachains, but would like to connect with one another. The exchange between these blockchains involves token transfers, crypto-asset transactions as well as arbitrary data transfer. A blockchain bridge can eliminate this distinction by offering an integrated solution that works with both blockchains to ensure effective interoperability.
There are various blockchain bridge designs and these designs are divided into two basic categories: centralized/ trusted/ federated bridges and decentralized/trustless bridges. We will focus on trustless bridges that are decentralized for this piece. Trustless bridges are not governed by any central authority to validate cross-chain communications. They instead operate using mathematical codes that operate in an autonomous and decentralized method. Blockchain bridges are among the most significant technologies to enable interoperability among multiple blockchain platforms, which have various the consensus processes, community as well as governance systems. A blockchain bridge can eliminate this distinction by providing an integrated solution that works with both blockchains, allowing for efficient interoperability. It aids to connect two blockchain platforms that may not be considered parachains but wish to interact with one another. The communications between these blockchains involves token transfers, crypto-asset transactions and random data transfers. Blockchain bridges eliminate the gap by offering an integrated solution that works with both blockchains to ensure effective interoperability.
There are various blockchain bridge designs and these designs are divided into two basic categories: centralized/ trusted/ federated bridges and decentralized/trustless bridges. This article will concentrate on trustless bridges that are decentralized for this piece. Trustless bridges are not governed by any central authority to validate cross-chain communications. They instead operate by using mathematical codes in an autonomous and decentralized manner.
What is what is a Polkadot bridge?
Polkadot was initially designed as the foundational structure to provide interoperability, scalability as well as security for cross-chain networks. It was able to allow different layer-1 parachains to interact within one network. Polkadot is also unique in its feature, which permits a parachain and any other non-parachain to connect. It achieves this through the use of blockchain bridges. Since it is the case that Polkadot network was created to decrease mediation across various P2P networks Blockchain bridges are favored particularly for cross-chain trustless interactions.
Let’s now explore Polkadot Bridging using an illustration. Consider a decentralized market for an insurance firm. One approach is to implement a an individualized parachain that functions as a market for brokers of insurance. Let’s assume that Polkadot is running an Oracle parachain that carries external data onto the chain, along with the Internet of Things (IoT) parachain which collects all data that is gathered from offline IoT devices.
In the event that you’ve bought an insurance policy for delay in flight it is possible for the insurance policy to be written in a way that it pays when the oracle’s parachain proves that there was delays in the flight, and the IoT parachain confirms that you have arrived at the airport at the scheduled time. When the parachain for insurance gets an alert from the oracle and IoT parachains, it can use a blockchain bridge in order to initiate an exchange using cryptocurrency and transfer it from the account of the insurance company to the account of the policy’s. Bridging is a way to facilitate interoperability.
After we’ve figured out the role of bridging in the context of parachains and non-parachains is a common framework that can be used to build both kinds of chains. The framework is called the substratum framework. Substrate-based Parachains are linked and protected by Polkadot and Kusama Relay chain, so they have the ability to interact to other parachains. However, the standalone substrate-based chains and non-substrate-based independent chains, such as Ethereum can be connected and communicate with parachains through blockchain bridges.
In order to improve the quality of the substrate-based chains’ connectivity, the Polkadot Parity team has been working on constructing the generic bridge. This bridge will be comprised of several elements that, when combined, allows bi-directional and cross-chain interactions between a single chain based on a substrate and parachains or between two chain structures based on substrates.
Web3 Foundation Grants aided the creation of different bridges. Let’s look at the blockchain bridges in our next section.
What kind of bridges have been built in the Polkadot ecosystem by various networks?
Information about The Polkadot blockchain bridges made possible by Web3 Foundation Grants can be found as the following:
Interlay
It is believed that the Interlay platform has created a secure connection that connects Bitcoin as well as Polkadot. It is currently in the beta testnet stage. The bridge will allow users to mint assets, backed by Bitcoin in an amount of 1:1 using the Polkadot platform. The coins will be referred to as PolkaBTC.
PolkaBTC can be used in conjunction with any application or parachain within the Polkadot ecosystem as a kind of an native asset. PolkaBTC assists in unlocking the BTC liquidity that is needed for Polkadot’s centralized finance. In all this, however it is important to note that PolkaBTC makes use of the XCLAIM protocol. This makes the bridge a secure, censorship-resistant, and permissionless bridge medium.
Snowfork
The Snowfork platform is another one that developed a general-purpose bridge that connects the Ethereum blockchain and Polkadot. The bridge is designed to transfer ETH and ERC20 assets as well as the random data from on the Ethereum chain into the Polkadot chain. Alongside the asset transfers the general-purpose bridge developed by Snowfork can also allow cross-chain smart contract calls.
Darwinia
Darwinia is a network that is known by its name as the bridge hub across chains. It has created an unrestricted and non-custodial bridge protocol that is cost-effective and efficient decentralization of the tokens used in cross-chain. Darwinia’s bridge protocol is also focused on cross-chain exchanges other than cryptocurrency-asset transfer. This bridge combines technologies such as the optimistic verification mechanism.
Centrifuge
Centrifuge in partnership with ChainSafe created a bridge known as The ChainBridge that is modular, asset-neutral, and multi-directional. The ChainBridge permits users of the Centrifuge platform to exchange fungible as well as non-fungible tokens among chains. ChainBridge being an open source project aids other teams that use the platform to create bridges to bridge the gap between their respective projects.
ChainX
ChainX is a crypto asset exchange platform which plans to create bridges between various networks. It has also built the bridge that connects BTC to a chain based on substrates. According to the design of the bridge of ChainX the bridge is utilized by validators who are part of ChainX’s PoS chain’s consensus. ChainX and also manage the BTC Multi-Sig wallet.
Bitfrost
Bitfrost Another platform has created bridges for EOS networks. This bridge permits cross-chain transfer of assets in a secure way by using small nodes that are on the chain in conjunction with the Merkle tree verification.
Now that we’re familiar with the various kinds of bridges being created within the Polkadot ecosystem, it’s about time to explore the most fundamental ways of blockchain bridges in the following section.
What are the various blockchain ways of bridging?
Interoperability between blockchains is ensured by the unique technology of bridging. Bridging technology is used in conjunction with the Polkadot platform. It helps to make Polkadot’s Polkadot community compatible with other blockchain platforms like Cardano, XDC, Ethereum and many more.
There are several specific methods to construct the Polkadot bridge, which are trustless and decentralized in its nature, as follows:
Pallets to help bridge
For the chain based on substrates bridge pallets are available to bridge the cross-chain communication gap. For instance, the Kusama \<\> Polkadot bridge since both networks are parachains, and both utilize the same substrate.
A substrate pellet is utilized to receive messages from the Polkadot ecosystem from a non-parachain system. The example of a substrate can be implemented on Polkadot or in the form of a system-level parchain or as an individual parachain that is operated by an organization called a community.
When it comes to independent substrate chains, bridging contracts can be used in order to fill the gaps between cross-chain interaction , as discussed in the next section.
Smart contracts
If a particular blockchain isn’t functioning on a particular substrate, make use of smart contracts on the blockchain which isn’t located on the substrate, to make the connection. For instance the Ethereum mainnet is equipped with an bridging smart contract which can initiate transactions based on the Cross-chain Message passing (XCMP) messages that are received.
With the help of blockchain platforms and Turing-complete smart contract language, Polkadot can be effectively linked to any other blockchain with the ability to use smart contracts. For example Ethereum’s Parity bridge is comprised of two smart contract, each one of which is based on different blockchains that allow the transfer of values across cross-chains. In the beginning it is this Parity bridge’s PoC connects to the sidechain as well as with the principal Ethereum chains. ETH that is deposited into the chain’s contract creates an account balance that is equal to the denomination of ERC-20 tokens in the Ethereum sidechain. On the other hand the ERC-20 tokens that are deposited back into the sidechain’s contract could free up ETH from the main chain.
Higher-order protocols
Higher-order protocols, like XCLAIM, could be used to bridge the gap in the event of none other alternatives to bridge. XCLAIM specifically requires any asset that is swappable to be secured by collateral that has a higher value than swappable assets.
One example of a system which is suitable to use for protocols with higher order is Bitcoin because it isn’t capable of smart contracts , and is a non-substrate system.
There are also three distinct methods by which Substrate and Polkadot chains are bridged to the Ethereum chain. Polkadot as well as the Substrate chains are connected with the Ethereum chain, as described below:
- Substrate EVM Module
- Polkadot Ethereum Public Bridge
- Substrate->Parity The Ethereum (Openethereum) Bridge
To read more – https://devnow.tech.blog/2022/05/09/all-about-polkadot-bridges/
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