The lack of interoperability of blockchains has been a serious problem to date. When a developer creates a decentralized application on one blockchain, they are typically tied to that blockchain and have no way to profit from the benefits of other blockchains.
Bridges can be built for a variety of reasons and goals. They may interchange any sort of data, decentralized identities, off-chain oracle information, and much more, in addition to allowing a token from one network to be utilized on another. By removing the constraints imposed by their home network, bridges enable apps to become even more decentralized.
Ethereum has well-documented scalability concerns that many developers likely expected to have resolved by now. If the developers go to a quicker platform, like polygon, they would lose the advantages that Ethereum has to offer, such as a huge community, a well-accepted token standard, and the most frequently used smart contract platform.
As a result, a developer may utilize a bridge to move their token from one blockchain network to another, making use of both platforms’ advantages. Tokens, data, and smart contracts may flow between many different platforms in a completely interoperable blockchain environment.
What are some advantages of blockchain bridges?
Using blockchain bridges has several advantages. For example, during times of heavy traffic and congestion, a DApp developer utilizing Ethereum commonly experiences a bad user experience owing to sluggish transaction processing speed and exorbitant gas fees. They can transmit their token onto another blockchain for processing at a faster and lower cost by utilizing a bridge. This means the developer may keep their DApp running on Ethereum, using ERC-20 token standards and benefiting from Ethereum’s thriving development and user community.
Developers that use the bridge benefit both blockchain ecosystems. It decreases Ethereum network load by distributing it over other, less crowded blockchains, helping to address Ethereum’s continuing scalability issues. The Ethereum community becomes more aware of the other blockchain, which leads to its acceptance.
Instant payments at the point of sale, which have been nearly impossible due to the scalability issues of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), might be one of the use cases for a bridge. Bridges could also be helpful for DApps that require fast settlement to provide a consistent user experience, such as casino games.
Are there any operating blockchain bridges?
Several projects have already released their versions of a blockchain bridge. Some of the major ones include:
- KuCoin Community Chain Bridge: https://www.kcc.io/#/bridge/transfer
- Near Protocol Bridge: https://ethereum.bridgetonear.org/
- OKex Bridge: https://www.okex.com/okex-bridge
- Binance Smart Chain Bridge: https://www.binance.org/en/bridge
- Moonriver: https://moonbeam.network/networks/moonriver/
To maintain a consistent token supply across all platforms, bridges often utilize a mint-and-burn mechanism. When a token leaves one blockchain, it is burnt or locked, and a new token on the opposite blockchain is created in its place. When the token returns to its original network, however, the “twin” token is burnt or locked.
How do blockchain bridges work?
Bridges, like blockchains, may run at various levels of decentralization. While some blockchain bridges are centralized, others retain the important decentralization that helps ensure the security of DeFi protocols.
Federated
The operation of a federated bridge is similar to that of a private or permissioned blockchain. The project provides a set of requirements that must be met for someone to be considered for membership in the federation that organizes and regulates bridge transactions.
Trustless
A decentralized network of agents can be used to operate a trustless bridge. Unlike the federated method, anybody may become an agent in the network, and agents are paid for confirming bridge transactions. Some bridges use a network of agents that stake Ether and benefit from superblocks of bridge transactions. If one agent believes another is not acting in the best interests of the network by delivering invalid superblocks, they can submit a challenge.
Blockchain bridges for dApps?
Bridges can be disruptive for dApps, however, the bridges that are now in use have only been operational for a few months, so they are still in the early stages of acceptance. They, on the other hand, have a lot of potential, especially when it comes to stablecoins. To keep up with this rapid expansion, Tether (USDT) has had to expand to new networks regularly. We will soon see powerful interconnections being made that will change the digital landscape.
Still, given the young nature of this area, it’s unavoidable that certain bridge implementations may run into problems. In May, tBTC, a trust-minimized Bitcoin–Ethereum bridge, had to be shut down just two days after it launched due to a flaw in the code that rendered it impossible to continue working.
Nonetheless, given the current focus on scalability and interoperability, bridges appear to be an unavoidable and necessary feature of the future blockchain environment. Soon, EmiSwap will expand to more blockchains including OKEx, Binance Smart Chain, Huobi Chain, Polkadot, TRON, Polygon, and KuCoin. Stay tuned for the EmiBridge — a bridge between blockchains; enabling NFT farming, limit, stop limit, stop market orders, and more!
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