Last Week In The Multi-Chain Ecosystem (03 Jan to 10 Jan 2021)

Bridge Updates

1) Connext Partners With LayerSwap 🤝

Users can now send crypto from CEXs directly to a broader list of chains supported by Connext.

2) TreasureDAO Integrates LiFi Cross-Chain Swap Widget 🦎

By simply clicking on ‘Purchase $MAGIC on Treasure Marketplace and using the Anychain Swaps option, users can join the TreasureVerse.

3) Celer Network Supports Aurora ⚡

Users can now bridge native $BNB and $AVAX to Aurora using cBridge.

4) Multichain (Previously Anyswap) Supports Metis 🚀

Users can now execute transfers between Metis and Polygon. Multichain plans to support Solana bridging soon.

5) Terra Osmosis Bridge Is Now Live 🌔

Terra’s official bridge now supports direct bridging to Osmosis on its interface. Users can now execute outbound IBC transfers from Terra to Osmosis.

6) Celer cBridge Adds Support for $PEOPLE 🔥

Users can now bridge $PEOPLE from ETH L1 to over 10 chains.

Multi-Chain Ecosystem Updates

1) Fiat to L2 Platform Mt. Pelerin Supports Arbitrum and Optimism💥

Users can now on-ramp to L2 in 7 fiats and off-ramp from L2 in 20+ fiats across banks in 171 countries.

2) Vitalik Proposes Multidimensional EIP-1559 💸

Vitalik proposes two options to optimize Ethereum mining resource usage. This can potentially lower the transaction fees. Until now, the community looks to favor Option 1 which proposes a mechanism similar to the current EIP-1559.

3) Arbitrum Goes Down As It Experiences Sequencer Downtime ⬇️

Earlier today, Arbitrum experienced Sequencer downtime, which made the Arbitrum One network temporarily unavailable.

What’s Popping On Twitter?

Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum (ETH), raised security concerns about cross-chain bridges in the blockchain ecosystem in a Reddit post on Friday. He later tweeted about the same and sent Crypto Twitter into a frenzy.

In his post, Vitalik explains the fundamental security limits with bridges that use the “lock token X on origin chain and create a new supply of it on the destination” mechanism to execute cross-chain transactions. According to Buterin, keeping native assets on a chain gives a degree of protection against 51 percent assaults. This is because, even if hackers can censor or reverse transactions, they cannot propose blocks that would deny a user of their crypto assets. However, cross-chain bridges do not have the same level of security and hence have fundamental security limits.

While the jury is still out what protections can be put in place to avoid exploits mentioned by Vitalik, there’s a consensus that assets are always safer when retained on their native chain rather than being bridged and wrapped into an asset on a chain where they don’t belong. Moreover, as pointed out by Sunny Aggarwal, co-founder of Osmosis and key Cosmos builder, chains will need to join the interchain or be left behind. Implementing and adopting cross-chain smart contracts and token bridges are inevitable, and thus, we shouldn’t look to avoid cross-chain but have solutions and protections in place. A possible winning approach to interoperability as proposed by Connext Network could be a bridge that inherits the full security of L2s, without any changes in a rollup-centric future and thus enables the trustless transfer of crypto assets.

Interesting Reads

1) Fantom Foundation’s 2021 Fantom Recap 🚀

2) Sir Yoked On Extracting Value From A L1/L2 💎

3) Arjun Bhuptani’s Interview On ‘Let’s Talk Cross-Chain’ 🤔

4) LiFinance’s Deep Dive On Connext Network 🤿

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Disclaimer: This newsletter is only meant for informational purposes. While many projects featured in the newsletter are our partners, we encourage you to do your own due diligence before using or buying tokens of any protocol mentioned above.

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