Diving deep into cross-chain technology
In Chapter 4, EVM-Compatible Blockchain Networks, we discussed common cross-chain bridge designs, including natively verified bridge designs, locally verified bridge designs, and externally verified bridge designs. The following sub-sections will quickly go over the main concepts and how to build a cross-chain bridge in practice.
How does a cross-chain bridge work?
One of the simplest and most common types of bridge is a cross-chain bridge. It uses a mechanism known as the lock-and-mint model to move value cross-chain. In this section, we’ll learn how the lock-and-mint model works in practice.
To understand how lock-and-mint model bridges work, let’s consider a user, Alice, who wants to move USDT assets from Ethereum to the Polygon blockchain:
- First, Alice deposits amounts of the Ethereum USDT in a specific contract address owned by the bridge on the source chain Ethereum and pays the transaction fee. A trusted...
