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Bridges facilitate communication and interoperability between two technologically diverse and economically independent chains. It is considered the cornerstone of blockchain technology.
The bridge makes the Polkadot ecosystem compatible with external blockchains such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc.
What is a Bridge?
There are several types of bridge designs. These can range from centralized and trusted bridges to highly distributed and unreliable bridges. For Polkadot, decentralized and trustless bridge designs are preferred as they allow for greater decentralization. However, teams are also free to deploy centralized bridges. Although the bridge design was well planned and efficient, it was rarely used in production.
When building a decentralized, trustless bridge, developers can use one of the following methods: bridge palettes, smart contracts, and higher-order protocols.
Bridge Palette – The Bridge Palette allows you to create bridges from the board default bridges. An example is the Polkadot-Kusama bridge. This is because both network parachains use Substrate.
Smart contracts – If the underlying chain is not based on Substrate, developers can use smart contracts to create a bridge. For example, the Ethereum mainnet has a smart contract bridge that initiates ETH transactions based on incoming XCMP messages.
High-level protocols – Chains like Bitcoin do not support smart contracts. In these scenarios, developers can create bridges using protocols such as XClaim.
Types of Blockchain Bridges
There are several types of bridges in the blockchain ecosystem. Some bridges are one-way, allowing developers to port assets only to the target blockchain and not to the destination blockchain. Meanwhile, bridges like Multichain and Wormhole are one-way, allowing developers to freely convert or move assets between chains. Bridges can be managed (centralized and trustless) or non-custodial (decentralized and trustless).
As of June 2024, there is approximately $23.5 billion worth of cryptocurrencies locked on the bridge, according to data from DeFiLlama.
Polkadot-Kusama Bridge
The Polkadot-Kusama bridge is a pioneering example of trustless interoperability. This solves interoperability issues and promotes efficient asset transfer between networks. Bridge operations are facilitated by bridge hubs designed explicitly for this purpose. The Bridge Hub is the central hub of bridge activity and is an important part of the interconnected blockchain network envisioned by Polkadot. Bridge Hub handles important functions such as message handling, bridge palette hosting, governance, and ownership, and provides greater flexibility for developers.
The Polkadot-Kusama bridge is an important step in blockchain technology and truly demonstrates the capabilities of trustless, decentralized, and permissionless interoperability. This sets a precedent for future blockchain development and highlights the potential to create more complex and integrated blockchain applications.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not provided or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial or other advice.
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