development pattern

The current mainstream cross-chain technology has formed a multi-path development pattern, And continue to mature: first, "Asset custody cross-chain" is represented by WBTC (Bitcoin anchor coin) and renBTC, Lock in native assets (such as BTC) through a decentralized hosting node, Casting the 1:1-anchored derivative assets on the target chain, To realize the cross-chain circulation of assets, WBTC is now over $3 billion in circulation, To become the most important form of BTC circulation on the Ethereum chain; Second course, The "Native cross-chain protocol" is represented by IBC (cross-chain communication protocol) of Cosmos and Parachain (parallel chain) of Polkadot, By building the architecture of the "relay chain + application chain", Let the different chains directly realize the point-to-point transmission of data and assets, For example, Atom, Osmosis and other tokens in the Cosmos ecosystem can seamlessly cross the chain through the IBC protocol, And the commission is only a few cents, The confirmation time is shortened to seconds; Third, "Atomic exchange technology" is represented by THORChain, With the hash time lock contract (HTLC), Without the third party agent, To achieve the direct exchange of different blockchain assets, For example, users can exchange BTC directly for ETH, The whole process is completely decentralized, Assets do not need to be out of user wallet control. More importantly, cross-chain technology is deeply integrating with the DeFi scene, giving birth to a new financial service model.

These innovations not only solve the cross-chain pain points of users, but also make DeFi ecology change from "single-chain closed-loop" to "multi-chain collaboration". The advantageous resources of different chains (such as the ecological richness of Ethereum, low cost of BSC and high speed of Solana) complement each other, forming the ecological effect of "1+1>2". From the perspective of the law of industry development, "integration" is the inevitable direction of technological evolution. Just as the Internet moves from the early LAN fragmentation to the global interconnection, blockchain is bound to move from multi-chain independence to cross-chain integration.