At Nervos, we have crossed a significant milestone with the first Nervos Network cross-chain bridge, Force Bridge, now live on mainnet. The Ethereum Force Bridge connects the Ethereum ecosystem to our own Nervos ecosystem for increased interoperability and token liquidity.
This is a major step in Nervos’ interoperability 2.0 plan, which is our vision for a truly interconnected blockchain ecosystem. Upcoming updates will include wrapped CKB on Ethereum, ADA Force Bridge, Bitcoin Force bridge, and more.
How Force Bridge Works
The Ethereum Force Bridge, an open-source project, allows the transfer of whitelisted tokens from the Ethereum chain to the Nervos chain through a series of smart contracts deployed on both sides. These smart contracts implement wallets secured by a Force Bridge committee composed of the Nervos team and a group of ecosystem partners.
ETH or whitelisted ERC-20 tokens (currently DAI, USDT and USDC with more to come in the future) are first locked in a smart contract on the Ethereum blockchain side, followed by the minting of corresponding sUDT tokens on the Nervos side. While the process occurs on Layer 1, tokens can also be sent directly to Layer 2 without any extra steps for the end-user. When moving these assets from Ethereum to Nervos Layer 1, a total of 27 confirmations are required, with 12 on Ethereum and 15 on Nervos.
The SUDT tokens can later be transferred back to the Ethereum blockchain using the reverse process. This, in turn, burns the sUDT tokens, followed by the Ethereum assets being released from the Ethereum blockchain smart contract. The entire process was developed to be quick, secure, and convenient for both end-users and developers to use.
A small fee is incurred to support the ongoing security of the bridge and to pre-pay the CKBs necessary to mint new sUDT tokens on the Nervos blockchain. Fee structures are available online as part of the open-source repository.
What’s Next
The next phase of the Ethereum Force Bridge is already underway and includes wrapping both CKB and NFTs from the Nervos ecosystem to the Ethereum blockchain. This is being developed concurrently with the Cardano Force Bridge project. After the Cardano bridge, we’ll have Force Bridge connect to more layer 1 and layer 2 blockchains.
A Phased Approach towards Decentralization
As we bootstrap the Force Bridges, we’re taking a more active approach working with community partners to monitor the flow of funds and ensure asset security. As we move beyond this phase, we’ll evolve Force Bridges between two smart contract platforms (such as Nervos <> Ethereum and Nervos <> Cardano) to fully decentralized solutions with distributed header relays and on-chain verifications.
Restrictions
There is no maximum value a user can send across Force Bridge, but the minimum value is capped depending on the assets transferred.
We’re excited to share more Force Bridge developments in the future, but for now, be sure to follow our blog and your community’s social channels to stay up updated.
To access the Ethereum Force Bridge, visit https://forcebridge.com/
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