One of the prerequisites for the mass adoption of blockchain technology is interoperability: the ability to pass data between different blockchain and blockchain-like systems. Numerous interoperability projects have emerged today, and many are growing at an incredible pace. Indeed, it is only a matter of time before the number of cross-chain messages is measured in trillions.
Blockchain interoperability has never been more ubiquitous. In January 2024, over $23 billion worth of assets were locked up in cross-chain bridges on Ethereum alone. It’s clear that our industry’s early adopters – affectionately known as Web3 enthusiasts – are eager to explore new ecosystems as they routinely bridge assets from one blockchain to another. This process, while clumsy, has become so commonplace that many believe blockchain interoperability is a solved problem.
The truth is much bleaker.
The current state of blockchain interoperability is one of broken incompatibility. Competing interoperability projects are building ad hoc solutions that disrupt the blockchain landscape, making it impractical for companies and regulators to examine the security of each of them. As it stands, the current state of blockchain interoperability poses an existential threat to mainstream adoption of blockchain technology as a whole.
Modern interoperability projects are far too focused on building and growing their own proprietary products. The struggle to become the one and only has led to growing system complexity and thus limitless risks. As different projects make different trade-offs to solve different problems, blockchain interoperability protocols continue to grow in complexity. Not only does this complexity make protocols increasingly incompatible with each other, every new system component or trust assumption introduces new attack vectors. As an industry, we must curb this disturbing trend.
There is an urgent need for a shared framework for interoperability.
As a trustworthy system, decentralized blockchains are unable to communicate with other blockchain networks out-of-the-box. Trust assumptions dictate the risk profile of a given cross-chain design by shaping its vulnerabilities and delineating how a system can be exploited. In general, the greater the complexity of a system, the greater its susceptibility to attack. It is therefore preferable to simplify the design of cross-chain solutions to limit the number of exploitable components. So while it is true that trust assumptions are inherent to blockchain interoperability solutions, there is security in simplicity.
Read more in our opinion section: There is no reason to fear open platforms
A shared framework for interoperability between blockchain and blockchain-like systems – one that includes architectural guidelines and vetted interface definitions – makes it possible to reduce system complexity. This has the knock-on effect of preventing fragmentation across different project implementations. Even something as simple as common interfaces and functions to decode and verify message validity would go a long way toward improving interoperability while reducing the need for custom implementations.
A shared interoperability framework also has the potential to promote collaboration between different interoperability projects. Broadly speaking, interoperability projects simply do not trust each other’s work. This isn’t entirely surprising when you consider that more than $2.9 billion was stolen from operated chain bridges between 2021 and 2023. Nevertheless, this distrust has directly contributed to the current broken state of blockchain interoperability. A shared framework, openly built and controlled by everyone, will result in a more secure system.
Blockchain interoperability should be the core infrastructure first, and the product second. If we as an industry are to have any hope of achieving mainstream adoption of blockchain technology (without sacrificing the industry’s core ethos of decentralization), we must establish a shared framework for interoperability. Time is running out.
