What is Cross-Chain Technology?
The number of blockchain projects is steadily increasing as developers continue to innovate and exploit the technology. Furthermore, as the number of blockchain users grows, interoperability across different blockchains becomes more important.
Because there is no one-size-fits-all solution that can solve all of a blockchain’s flaws, additional protocols are being created to improve current blockchains. Newer protocols provide more capabilities, and cross-chain technology is one such effort.
What is the meaning of cross-chain technology?
The widespread use of blockchain platforms has brought to light difficulties with processing speed and scalability in earlier blockchains. Because all blockchains function separately and do not connect with one another, developers face a unique challenge: consumers will be unable to fully benefit from blockchain technology.
People on various blockchains cannot achieve complete decentralization unless they are linked via a common protocol. Cross-chain technology tries to overcome this issue by allowing multiple blockchains to communicate with one another. It implies they’ll all be able to converse and exchange information.
The cross-chain protocols, which seek to improve connection, are interoperable with various blockchains. This implies that financial transactions across two entirely separate blockchains are possible. Previously, crypto-enabled businesses could only take payments from customers who used the same blockchain as them, preventing them from freely transacting with other blockchain-based firms.
Through such an environment, transaction costs will be significantly reduced, and downtime will be eliminated.
What is the significance of interoperability?
Both parties must be able to transact across blockchains for transactions to be seamless. Consider the case when user A wishes to transmit bitcoin to user B. If the money is to be transferred, User B has no option but to utilize the same blockchain as User A. This issue will soon be a thing of the past thanks to cross-chain technologies.
Interoperability across blockchains, according to experts, will lead to the creation of new capabilities between blockchains. A decentralized and secure system like this might be the foundation of a fully digital economy.
Multi-token wallets are also being created, which implies that if 100 percent interoperability is achieved, transactions including the exchange of numerous tokens would be feasible. The main advantage will be that users will be able to conduct all transactions using a single wallet.
The possible uses do not have to be restricted to financial transactions. If revolutionary ideas are conceived, they may be further developed by exchanging information through the extremely secure blockchain technology. The security of communication between two parties rises when it is not regulated by central monitoring or intermediaries.
What other blockchain initiatives are attempting to achieve interoperability?
Consider the following blockchain initiatives that aim to accomplish comparable outcomes via disruptive innovation:
1. Polkadot: Gavid Wood, one of Ethereum’s creators, created the Polkadot network, which focuses on sending smart contract data across blockchains. This blockchain employs ‘parachains,’ which expand the network horizontally and take all processing away from the main chain. The main chain is decongested, processing speed is increased, and scalability is improved.
2.t3rn: t3rn is a Substrate-based cross-chain smart contract hosting platform. The platform offers programmable collaboration and trustless multi-chain implementation. T3rn also adds skepticism to smart contracts by allowing them to run on many blockchains at once. The protocol makes interoperability simple for platforms, including older blockchains that may not be compatible with the current interoperability solutions.
The platform has a repository that may be used to develop an interoperable smart contract that can communicate with contracts on different blockchain platforms without the need for cross-chain functionalities.
3. Ambire: Ambire is a non-custodial, open source and multi-chain wallet with email registration. This means that users don’t need to manage their seed phrases, whilst still having full control over their wallets. Since it’s open source, even if Ambire is down for some reason, users can still have their wallets self hosted. The wallet also has built-in swaps and cross-chain transfers
4. Cosmos: Cosmos, sometimes known as the “internet of blockchains,” is a system that emphasizes scalability above development simplicity. It provides developers with a software development kit (SDK) that makes creating decentralized applications and deploying them on the blockchain using smart contracts relatively simple. The Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol connects all chains (zones) on the Cosmos blockchain with the main chain (the hub).
Conclusion
Blockchain technology, when combined with interoperability solutions, is predicted to have a wide range of uses. For years, blockchains have battled with scalability, but cross-chain protocols may help. It will also encourage crypto adoption since it will be irrelevant whatever blockchain is used.
The utility value of cryptocurrencies with such strong underlying fundamentals makes them more suitable for investment reasons than other cryptocurrencies with weak fundamentals. Before making financial choices, investors should learn all there is to know about how blockchains work.
