Hello and welcome everyone to my blog . We have one more season full of opportunities and knowledge hosted by different communities. Today i choose to write task set by Cryptoacademy community which is about Blockchain Bridges

What do you understand by a blockchain bridge? And what necessitated bridges in the blockchain.

Blockchain is a decentralized public ledger system where recorded transactions or data are cryptographically secured. Blockchain is known for its security, transparency, accountability and auditability. Being a feature-rich technology, its use cases are increasing day by day. Although a versatile technology, it is not immune to limitations. One of the major problems with all blockchains is the lack of interoperability. To put it simply, we can say that blockchains are not able to communicate with each other. To foster interoperability or to make blockchains interact with each other, the role of blockchain bridge comes into play.

Blockchain bridges are neutral protocols which connect two blockchains and therefore help in the transfer of cryptos and data between the connected blockchains that are otherwise non-interactive. For example, the Binance bridge allows ERC 20 and TRC 20 cross-chain transfer of tokens.

Necessity is the mother of invention. Whenever some technology is introduced, people explore that technology to maximise the use cases. In this phase, limitations of technology are bound to be highlighted so that appropriate measures are taken to rectify them. Blockchain being a versatile technology had one major limitation of being non-interactive with other blockchains. So to tackle this issue of communication barriers between blockchains, the concept of blockchain bridges was brought in.

The good thing is that besides solving the interoperability, blockchain bridges incorporated certain other features into the ecosystem as well. We shallalldiscuss about those functionalities later.

What are the benefits of the blockchain bridge? How does the bridge work?

Mentioned that the concept of blockchain bridge came into being to tackle the shortcomings of blockchain. Those addressed shortcomings evolved as advantages of blockchain bridges and they are ;

Interoperability

The non-interactive nature of blockchains is limiting their proper exploration. The language of blockchains is scripted in such a way that other blockchains are not able to comprehend the data and therefore the operations performed on one blockchain cannot be directly carried on another. Blockchainbridges remove the operational barrier and make blockchains interoperable.

Low Transaction Fee

Blockchain bridges help the transfer of tokens from one blockchain to another without involving trading platforms. Trading platforms can also swap tokens but each swap would charge some amount of transactions free which is not the case in blockchain bridge.

Explore dApps

By transfer of tokens across blockchains, users can explore apps on several blockchains without incurring charges

Scaleability

Some bridges allow the user to perform large number of transactions which leads to improved scalability of the networks

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Working of Blockchain Bridges

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Besides the transfer of data or information, the main utility of blockchain bridge is that of token transfer across blockchains. Let's say we want to transfer BTC to ETH. We know that the two blockchains are not interoperable. To do so, we will transfer our BTC to a blockchain bridge where our token will get locked and the BTC equivalent of ETH or wrapped BTC compatible with ERC-20 standards will be released and available for use on the Etherium blockchain. In case BTC is needed back, ETH or WBTC will be burned and BTC will be returned to the wallet.

In absence of blockchain bridges, if we are holding BTC tokens and we want to explore ETH blockchain then we have to resort to trading platforms or exchange and sell BTC for ETH. In that case, we will have to bear the transaction fee. So in the case of Blockchain bridges, we need not sell the tokens that we hold.

Highlight the types of blockchain bridges by category. Pick an example of a blockchain bridge in existence and explain how it works.

Blockchain bridges have been classified variably based on various parameters.

Based on governing authority there are two types of Blockchain bridges and they are Trusted and Trustless bridges. Trusted bridges are governed by central authority whereas Trustless bridges are operated through smart contracts. Therefore in the former, we need to trust some third party whereas in the latter we have smart contracts or algos to execute the contracts.

Based on function, blockchain bridges are classified as Wrapped onset bridges and sidechain bridges. Wrapped onset bridges connect two separate blockchains through wrapped tokens. For example, wrapping of BTC to WBTC. Example Binance chain, c chain and Anyswap are examples. Sidechains on the other hand connect the parent blockchain with the child blockchain where the two blockchains do not have the same operating algorithm. For example, the xDAI bridge connects Etherium blockchain to the Gnosis blockchain.

Based on the domain of the function, bridges can be unidirectional or bidirectional. Unidirectional bridges allow the transfer of tokens from one chain to another but not in the reverse direction. While a bidirectional bridge allows transfer from either to the other blockchain. An example of a bidirectional bridge is the Etherium-polygon bridge through which the transfer of tokens can be carried out either way.

Are there limitations to the blockchain bridges? What do you think about the future of blockchain bridges?

No technology is immune to limitations and the same holds for blockchain bridges The following are some of the limitations of blockchain bridges :

Trusted bridges are under the control of some third party and the funds are therefore under the custody of authorities other than the owner of funds. In the case of Trustless bridges, smart contracts and algorithms through which operations are executed are vulnerable to hacks by tech-savvy miscreants

Moreover, the interconnected blockchains have variable security and therefore the newly established connectivity through the bridge could sometimes risk the funds on a secure blockchain.

Blockchain Bridges can sometimes increase scalability but in the case of large-scale blockchains, these bridges can create a bottleneck effect and lower transaction throughput.

As for the future of blockchain bridges is concerned, Interoperability between blockchains helps to explore blockchains better. Therefore the blockchain bridges are anticipated to establish their identity in future provided the security concerns bothering the users are addressed properly.

Conclusion

Blockchain bridges are protocols to connect blockchains and tackle the issue of communication barriers among blockchains. The main use case of bridges is transfer of tokens across blockchains besides transfer of data. Since interaction among blockchains is essential to explore the capability of blockchains so we can predict the future of blockchain bridges is bright.