The existing blockchain/web3 industry features many blockchain ecosystems which contribute to the success of the blockchain industry in their own way. On the other hand, each individual ecosystem would remain separated from the broader industry. While such approaches emphasize security, the lack of interoperability can restrict users.
The blockchain ecosystem is expanding continuously with every passing day, alongside introducing a new variety of services. With over 125 blockchain networks in existence, it is surprising to believe that there is no way to enable communication among the networks. Therefore, cross-chain bridges have emerged as a promising solution for enabling interactions between two blockchain networks. The following post can help you find an outline of the top cross-chain bridges in the blockchain ecosystem right now.
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Definition of a Cross-Chain Bridge
Before you try searching for a list of cross-chain bridges, it is essential to learn what they are. Cross-chain bridges are an innovative solution for bridging between two distinct blockchain networks, thereby enabling the easier exchange of information and assets. Cross-chain bridges are an essential tool for exchanging siloed assets and data in blockchain networks with different blockchains. Upon building a cross-chain bridge, you can ensure easier transfer of funds and access to other functionalities without any glitches on the blockchain networks of your choice.
The outline of the most popular cross-chain bridges is an essential requirement for crypto and web3 users right now. Cross-chain bridges could guarantee significant benefits such as better user experiences and more opportunities for achieving asset productivity. In addition, cross-chain bridges could also ensure that developers could leverage the liquidity accessible on different platforms, thereby improving liquidity for concerned dApps.
Most of the cross-chain bridges follow the “Burn and Release” or “Lock and Mint” approaches for enabling blockchain interoperability. For example, the bridge would lock tokens on one blockchain and mint tokens on another blockchain with the same value. After minting on the new blockchain, owners can decide the release or unlock the tokens on the first blockchain.
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Significance of Cross-Chain Bridges
You can identify the answer to “What are the best cross-design bridges?” with more emphasis on their value by understanding the importance of cross-chain bridges. First of all, you need to know that cross-chain crypto bridges are unidirectional and help in sending assets to one blockchain network only. On top of it, you can also find multichain bi-directional bridges for enabling two-way asset transfer among two chains.
Cross-chain swaps can work by creating synthetic derivatives for assets on the native chain to ensure compatibility with the destination chain. For example, if you want to transfer ETH to Binance Chain, then the bridge would create a wrapped token for ETH in a format compatible with BEP-20 format and send it to the user’s wallet. The simple process helps in resolving the problems with interoperability.
As a result, users could make the most of high speed and scalability as well as the advantages of low cost in other chains you can find in the industry. Decentralized applications could improve their functionalities with access to top features on other popular blockchains. Developers could also collaborate across multiple blockchain platforms to ensure a better quality of decentralized applications.
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Top Cross-Chain Bridges in Crypto
The concept of cross-chain bridges offers a significant value improvement in services accessible to blockchain developers and users. An outline of the best cross-chain bridge crypto solutions could help you pick the ideal choice according to your requirements. The most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, utilizes the Wrapped Bitcoin or WBTC as a bridge. It helps in converting Bitcoin into an ERC-20 token, which is acceptable on different blockchain networks. However, Bitcoin does not have the features of smart contract programmability, which make Ethereum a top choice for DeFi, NFTs, and dApp development.
Cross-chain bridges could help in offering support for different variants of blockchain, albeit with varying levels of support from one provider to another. The top cross-chain bridges could help in taking the value of smart contracts, NFTs, and tokenization outside the Ethereum blockchain to different networks. Here are some of the most notable cross-chain bridges you can try out now.
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1. Binance Bridge
The first choice among the best cross-chain crypto bridges would refer to the popular Binance Bridge. It is a trusted option for enabling the transfer of assets from Ethereum to the Binance Smart Chain. As a trusted Ethereum-Binance Smart Chain bridge, the Binance Bridge could help anyone in converting crypto tokens into formats compatible with Binance Chain and BSC.
It can also help in converting the tokens back into Ethereum-compatible formats. The Binance Bridge offers support for converting ERC-20 tokens as well as a few other coins on different networks. Some of the supported coins on Binance Bridge include XRP, ONT, LINK, XTZ, DOT, and ATOM.
The work of Binance Bridge as one of the best cross-chain bridges is easy to understand, thereby enabling better usability. Upon receiving a request for token transfer, the bridge would wrap and convert the ETH tokens into BEP formats. After completing the conversion, the tokens can be implemented as the native BEP-20 tokens in swapping and staking activities throughout different protocols in the Binance Smart Chain ecosystem.
The conversion process is simple and can be completed within a few minutes for bridging tokens among the networks. Interestingly, the Binance Bridge is a unique choice in the list of cross-chain bridges as it does not charge any transaction fees. Users should only pay for the gas fees on the source and destination blockchain networks. In addition, the Binance Bridge interface is accessible to any user without the need for a Binance account.
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2. Avalanche Bridge
The next prominent entry among the most popular cross-chain bridges refers to the Avalanche Bridge. It is a bi-directional cross-chain crypto bridge working between the Avalanche and Ethereum blockchain networks. The Avalanche Bridge or Avax Bridge offers a better alternative to the traditional Avalanche-Ethereum Bridge or AEB. The Avalanche Bridge could enable the seamless transfer of assets among the two networks, thereby fuelling the growth of Avalanche.
Avalanche Bridge is the best cross-chain bridge the crypto industry has right now, and you can validate the same from its working. It works by using the ChainBridge of ChainSafe and enables two-way transfers of crypto tokens as well as NFTs. Users could request cross-chain swaps or use ERC-20 tokens in the dApp ecosystem of Avalanche. All users have to do is deposit and lock their tokens in the ChainBridge smart contract.
After the assets have been deposited and locked, the bridge creates a proposal and sends it to the relayers. The relayers on Avalanche Bridge, such as Avascan, Protofire, POA Network, and Hashquark, work on ensuring the security of the bridge. Relayers would compare the proposal with data available on the Avalanche blockchain and use a voting process for approval or rejection of the proposal. With the assurance of a voting process, Avalanche serves the benefit of additional security in transferring assets.
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3. Synapse Bridge
The answers to “What are the best cross-chain bridges?” would also draw the limelight towards Synapse Bridge. It is a unique layer-decentralized protocol focused on enabling cross-chain interoperability in the DeFi ecosystem. The two significant elements in the protocol include the Synapse AMM and Synapse Bridge. Synapse works by connecting blockchains through a customizable cross-chain messaging protocol, with support for smart contract calls, multiple assets, and many other functionalities.
The Synapse Bridge can facilitate the seamless transfer of crypto tokens and assets among multiple blockchain networks. Some of the popular blockchains supported by the Synapse Bridge include Avalanche, Polygon, Arbitrum, Binance Smart Chain, Harmony, Fantom, and Boba.
The functionalities of Synapse as one of the best cross-chain crypto bridges also involve the facility of seamless cross-chain swapping of stablecoins across different blockchain networks. The infrastructure of Synapse Bridge features multi-party computation validators responsible for the security of the bridge. At the same time, the validators can also respond to different events on blockchain networks associated with Synapse.
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4. Multichain Bridge
The collection of cross-chain crypto bridges also includes Multichain Bridge as a promising contender for driving blockchain interoperability. It was known as Fantom Anyswap and served as a cross-chain bridge protocol for offering a flexible flow of data and assets among multiple blockchain networks.
The interesting highlight of Multichain Bridge as one of the best cross-chain bridges is the support for multiple token types. In addition, it also supports multiple networks, including Bitcoin, Terra, Polygon, Clover, BNB Chain, Avalanche, and Optimism. The processing time of Multichain Bridge ranges from 10 to 30 minutes, thereby ensuring faster conversions. Furthermore, it also ensures cost-effective interoperability with a cross-chain transaction fee of 0.01%.
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5. Polygon Bridge
Another top addition among the best cross-chain bridge crypto platforms is the Polygon Bridge. It is a popular crypto bridge for transferring NFTs and ERC tokens to the Polygon sidechain. Polygon features two distinct types of bridges such as the Plasma Bridge and the Proof of Stake Bridge.
The two bridges can help in transferring assets between Ethereum and Polygon, albeit with unique security infrastructure. For example, the PoS Bridge leverages Proof of Stake consensus for security and is useful for transferring ETH and ERC-standard tokens.
On the other hand, the Plasma Bridge serves additional security benefits by using the Ethereum Plasma scaling solution. It can allow the transfer of ETH, ERC-721, ERC-20, and MATIC tokens. The foremost reason to choose Polygon Bridge is the assurance of lower gas fees. In addition, it does not involve any third-party protocols, thereby enabling faster processing.
6. Tezos Wrap Protocol
The final entry in the list of cross-chain bridges you should use would be the Tezos Wrap Protocol. It is a decentralized, permissionless, and bi-directional crypto bridge for facilitating the transfer of assets between Ethereum and Tezos blockchain networks. The bridge protocol helps in wrapping ERC-20 tokens in the FA2 standard for using them in the Tezos blockchain ecosystem.
The wrap protocol could help ERC-20 token owners capitalize on the benefits of scalability, lower transaction costs, and better network speed. In addition, the wrap protocol also offers support for wrapping ERC-721 tokens, thereby offering flexibility for transferring NFTs.
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Final Words
The details of the most popular cross-chain bridges show that you can achieve blockchain interoperability with the right tools. Each cross-chain bridge offers notable value-based benefits for interoperability among different blockchain networks. Interestingly, you can also achieve the benefits of transferring NFTs with cross-chain crypto bridges. The importance of crypto bridges for improving blockchain interoperability can have broader implications for the rise of web3. Start learning more about cross-chain bridges and how they serve an important role in DeFi protocols.
*Disclaimer: The article should not be taken as, and is not intended to provide any investment advice. Claims made in this article do not constitute investment advice and should not be taken as such. 101 Blockchains shall not be responsible for any loss sustained by any person who relies on this article. Do your own research!
