The Plasm Network at Polkadot and the Secret Network at Cosmos have launched the first iteration of the ‘bridge’ to connect ecosystems, each representing a different zero-level protocol for blockchain interoperability.
According to a Medium article, a bridge was launched on the Plasm testnet this week, allowing users to transfer assets between the Plasm Network and the Secret Network. Bridge transactions are confidential and the solution enables SecretSwap, the first automated market maker exchange on the Secret Network.
The bridge will enable Plasm users to enjoy the Secret Network’s privacy layer, which is based on the hardware guarantees offered by the Trusted Execution Environment (TEE). Secret Network nodes and validators use TEE to perform operations that require confidentiality, making them untraceable by the nodes themselves.
In the long term, the Plasm team wants their network to be the entry point to Cosmos for other Polkadot-based projects. Plasm co-founder Sota Watanabe said the key is winning the parachain distribution auctions on Kusama and Polkadot, which will allow the network to be built into the ecosystem. He noted:
“We are currently aiming to become one of the first Kusama parachains. By becoming a parachain, we will bridge the mainnet and make it more and more decentralized and trustless, step by step. ”
The current implementation of the bridge is based on the development of the Secret Network Bridge on the Ethereum blockchain, allowing the use of anonymity functions for ERC-20 tokens. This architecture is most common among various bridges and interoperability solutions, for example, for connecting Ethereum with other first-level platforms – Solana and Avalanche.
While there are various solutions to decentralize the federation process, for example by introducing a dynamic validator selection process, the holy grail for bridges between blockchains is the light client model. In this architecture, one blockchain can independently evaluate the evidence of transactions from another chain and make that data available to a smart contract, eliminating the need for intermediaries of any type. Watanabe said building light clients is the ultimate goal, but there are still some hurdles to overcome:
“We have considered the option of implementing a light client. We will most likely start implementing this approach after we become a Kusama parachain. Today’s implementation is a minimum viable product. We are currently discussing this topic in another group with the Cosmos team. One big problem is that we need the no_std versions of some of the base libraries. ”
The “no_std” monikers are used in the Rust programming language to denote applications that do not use the standard library. This can be a very strict limitation, as the Rust standard library defines many functions that will be considered basic attributes in higher-level languages. In the case of blockchains, no_std is needed because of WebAssembly, the virtual machine architecture used by Polkadot and other blockchains that have their own standard library.
However, the bridge between the Plasm Network and the Secret Network is the first connection between the Polkadot and Cosmos ecosystems. Watanabe said the concept could be easily expanded to more blockchains connected to Cosmos. There is another option – direct implementation of the recently launched IBC Cosmos protocol for blockchain interaction in Plasm and Substrate. The current bridge design can connect to the entire Cosmos ecosystem, provided the connection is through the Secret Network.
Although Cosmos and Polkadot are sometimes seen as competitors, Watanabe said the bridge popularizes a different vision:
“This is the first commercial trial that brings Cosmos assets to the Polkadot ecosystem and vice versa. We would like the idea of irreconcilable competition between Cosmos and Polkadot to be a thing of the past. ”
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