Is it possible to implement a solid cross-integration for different blockchains?
Cross-chain integration is one of the biggest targets of blockchain ideologues at the moment. Blockchain opportunities are staggering, but most of them exist in a strictly isolated system with no possible contact with other blockchains.
Can you imagine, if there were a universal protocol that could “make friends” among everyone?
In a global sense, there could be free data transfer within any system in such a way. In more tangible contexts, the mutual integration of blockchains would make it possible to organize the “here and now” crypto exchange. Limitations due to the need to interact with intermediaries (private owners, exchanges) are removed.
There is no clearly defined technical basis for the implementation of such an ambitious and useful project at the moment. However, enthusiasts are in the works. One example of cross-chain integration is Moonbeam.
What Moonbeam is
In a nutshell, Moonbeam is a developer-centric (Dapp developers) blockchain designed to build interoperability between Ethereum-based and inner projects. The concept is to build bridges between the platform itself and individual blockchains based on it. Ethereum was chosen as a starting point due to its popularity among Dapp developers, as well as its general integration capabilities.
The idea of cross-chain integration within Moonbeam
Moonbeam’s creators promise Dapp developers a convenient way to apply smart contracts. It will build mutual, holistic integration between blockchains. The project is being implemented in the Polkadot ecosystem.
Polkadot is the basis for a low-level integration protocol. Its name is cross-chain message passing (XCMP). It facilitates the construction of links between parachains and the sharing of trusted logic between the chains implemented in Polkadot. The developers evaluate Polkadot’s role in the project by analogy with Linux. It’s about libraries for developers to simplify custom application development.
The Moonbeam team expects Polkadot-powered parachains to help implement the concept of smart profile tools, where each application is task-oriented and does its job perfectly. Further, the built environment will help achieve the complex goals of making specialized smart contracts and parachain functionality.
Integration with Other Polkadot-Based Chains
As a reminder, the key goal of the project is to be able to move tokens from different blockchains into Moonbeam-based tokens so that the original tokens can be used in DeFi and other applications on the platform. Once their work is complete, these assets can be returned or moved to other chains. Next, integration capabilities will expand in new ways. Moonbeam’s creators promise to supply developers with ways to access these integrations from smart contracts and link features through the chains in Moonbeam smart contracts.
Plans for integration with Ethereum
Moonbeam plans to release internal projects, but hybrid tasks that require deployment to Ethereum and Moonbeam are also active. The first token transfer bridge is already in development.
A parachain-based bridge is not planned anytime soon, but for projects with mutual Ethereum and Moonbeam integration will be released:
· A utility to export state from Ethereum to a binary file with the possible subsequent import of the resulting data into Moonbeam;
· An integrated point-to-point Ethereum bridge directly incorporated into Moonbeam. It helps move tokens as well as perform queries and status messages between circuits.
To summarize, the developers’ intentions are focused on internal development and external integrations. The main conclusion is that the processes are running evenly, and a consistent approach and understanding of the sequence of actions on the part of Moonbeam’s creators are evident. There is hope that the bold expectations for cross-chain integration will be realized. It remains to be seen how much time and resources these projects will take.
