Wormhole for Developers
Blockchain development is making leaps and bounds of progress, but we remain far away from mainstream adoption. The end user is still confused, and communication between two blockchains is still problematic. They often need to resort to centralized alternatives, which defeats the entire purpose of switching to decentralized solutions. And the way Web3 has come to embrace the user’s right to their own data, we don’t want them to linger over centralized alternatives for long.
Blockchain developers have to find solutions to make the application interoperable so that the end user doesn’t need to worry about the lack of seamlessness available in the ecosystem. And not only does it help improve the user experience which is really crucial from a developer’s perspective, but it also aggregates to a more and more cohesive web3 ecosystem
What is Wormhole?
Wormhole is a platform that gives blockchain developers the tools they need to make a completely decentralized, seamless experience for different blockchains. Wormhole works by making connections between blockchains. This lets developers connect their apps to more than one blockchain.
Developers can use Wormhole to build dApps and hybrid applications, as well as bridge different chains together. It gets rid of the need to write application code for each blockchain separately, so developers can focus on making the app and giving users a unique experience.
Wormhole allows for the fast, secure, and trustless transfer of assets across blockchains. It does this by establishing a secure token bridge that is open for anyone to use for swapping tokens between any two blockchains. This token transfer is done without a central middleman, so users can move assets between networks without having to trust anyone.
Additionally, Wormhole’s protocol also supports token issuance and management. This allows developers to issue new tokens, backed by existing blockchains, in a trustless and secure way.
Interoperability feature of Wormhole
Interoperability means that different blockchain networks can talk to each other and share information. It is a key part of the blockchain ecosystem because it lets different blockchains work together and share resources instead of just running on their own.
Interoperability can be helpful for financial incentives, user adoption, and overall needs. It lets users access and interact with multiple blockchain networks, which increases the value and usefulness of each network and helps to drive the adoption and development of blockchain technology. In the context of blockchains, interoperability refers to an DApp having cross-chain capabilities.
Cross-chain DApps and interoperability are important in the blockchain industry for several reasons:
- Increased flexibility 👟
Cross-chain DApps and interoperability enable developers to build applications that can operate on multiple blockchain networks, increasing the flexibility and versatility of their applications. This can be particularly useful for developers who want to take advantage of the unique features and capabilities of different blockchains. - Wider audience 🏟
By building cross-chain DApps, developers can potentially reach a wider audience of users, as their applications will be accessible to users on different blockchains. This can be especially important for developers who are looking to maximize the impact and reach of their applications. - Improved scalability 📈
Cross-chain DApps and interoperability can also help to improve the scalability of blockchain applications by allowing them to leverage the resources of multiple networks. This can be especially useful for applications that require high levels of throughput or need to support a large number of users. - Enhanced security 🔒
Interoperability can also help to enhance the security of blockchain networks by allowing them to share resources and data with each other. This can make it more difficult for attackers to compromise a single network, as they would need to compromise multiple networks simultaneously.
Overall, cross-chain DApps and interoperability are important for the blockchain industry because they can make blockchain applications more flexible, scalable, and secure and help drive the use and growth of blockchain technology.
Leave Web3 alone. Let’s talk about clouds. We have a number of cloud services available today. We have Google Cloud, AWS, and Azure, and they all exist, and regardless of how convincingly each of them portrays their service as the best, the truth is that each has flaws.
Now, every web-based service has its own technical, legal, or logical reasons to go with a particular cloud service. But Web2 protocols make it possible for two projects built on different infrastructures to talk to each other, no matter how abstract they seem to the end user. For example, a mortgage service provider deployed on AWS will still be able to connect to a bank built on top of, let’s say, GCP.
Wormhole is a general messaging protocol that lets chains like Solana, Ethereum, the Binance Smart Chain, Avalanche, and others talk to each other. When launched, Wormhole morphed into more than just a token bridge; it became layer 0.
Wormhole Portal Token Bridge is a bridge app built on top of it. It makes it easy for tokens and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to move between supported chains in the Wormhole ecosystem. So, for example, if you have an asset built on top of an ERC-20 token that is natively built on Ethereum but you want to use it on some other DeFi ecosystem, it will help you avoid Ethereum’s rising gas fees. Wormhole will let you move your ERC-20 asset to an SPL-4 token or any other ecosystem you want in the Wormhole network.
In the crypto ecosystem, cross-chain bridges like Wormhole enable this kind of communication. Because the matter of fact is that no matter how much each chain convincingly portrays its chain as the best, the reality is that the blockchain’s development is fragmented. Developers who make use of this strength allow for a greater and enhanced user experience.
From a user’s perspective, they get access to a wider range of resources and functionality by being able to communicate with and exchange data with different blockchain networks. Also, since DApps and protocols can build on each other and make it easy for users to use their services quickly, it makes the ecosystem as a whole more cohesive.
Not only is it going to improve your experience as a user, but it is also going to be more tech-savvy, time-saving, and less expensive for you, considering the factor of an optimized gas fee.
Cross-chain apps can make the market more competitive and open to new ideas by giving developers access to a larger number of users and markets.
xAssets and xData on Wormhole
Interoperability challenges are some of the huge TO-DOs on the wish list of the blockchain ecosystem. Polygon assets exist only on Polygon, and SOL assets exist only on Solana. A great challenge for cross-chain blockchain developers is to make assets like these move freely, independent of their native blockchains.
Blockchains produce arbitrary data, and if this data, which could be anything, were able to move freely, then the elementary stage of this problem would be solved. This xData will then be accessible by all blockchains, independent of their native blockchains.
Cross-chain interoperability is all but a matter of dealing with xData. Once blockchains have the ability to read and write xChain data, decentralized application design is going to take new leaps.
xDapp on Wormhole
We all know about DApps. Now, xDapps are basically cross-chain decentralized applications. Now, it might look like they are simply decentralized applications that do some cross-chain stuff, but when, as a developer, you start building xDapps, that’s when you find out xDapps are fundamentally and architecturally built differently to enable cross-chain communication.
Architecturally, they follow Protocol-First Design, where the fundamental approach is to first lay out our DApp into a series of data structures and message payloads. The high-level protocol that is written into the xDapp then becomes the agreement that all parts must follow. We can compare it to how microservices were used in Web2 without getting too deep into the meaning.
It has an advantage over traditional decentralized apps because you can reach a wider range of users and because it is faster, more flexible, and more decentralized.
Cross-chain communication opens up a whole new horizon of opportunities for the existing project.
For example, if you have a token for a DeFi ecosystem that began as, say, the NEP-141 token on the NEAR blockchain, it can now also exist as the SPL-4 token on the Solana blockchain natively by leveraging the power of the Wormhole.
For another instance, token launches for your project were limited to a single chain. This could be done on more than one chain, but centralized entities would have to be involved. Wormhole allows tokens to be chain-agnostic assets, and we can sell tokens and launch them on multiple chains at the same time.
How can you leverage Wormhole?
Wormholes are essential in the Solana ecosystem for interoperability with other chains. As we’ve talked about, each chain has its own flaws, and as a developer, you can use this to get around a flaw in one chain and take advantage of an advantage that another chain has over the native chain.
Here are some ideas one can explore using Wormhole.
Asset transfer using a token bridge 🌉
Using a portal token bridge built on Wormhole, you as a developer can build an exchange that allows deposits from any Wormhole-connected chain. It helps increase the liquidity of the user interaction massively. As a developer, we can integrate the Wormhole SDK into the front end, and then, say, ETH is deposited into an application running on Solana; the portal token bridge will pick it up and transfer it to the target chain.
xChain Gaming 🎲
We can build a game over a high-performance network, let’s say Solana, and issue the rewards earned in the game on another network, for example, Ethereum.
Cross-chain governance 🏛
We can also enable cross-chain governance via Wormhole. For example, let’s say you are an artist and you have different NFT collections across different networks. Now, you want to decide the location of your next art exhibition, and this would be in accordance with the proximity of the maximum holders of your NFTs. The only way we can decide the location is by voting. To vote on a combined proposal like this, we can pick a “voting chain” and then use Wormhole to shuttle all the cast votes from various chains to the voting chain.
Decentralized identity 📇
A decentralized identity platform where users can manage and control their own digital identities across different blockchain networks.
DEX 💰
A decentralized prediction market, where users can make predictions and trade on the outcomes of events using assets from different blockchain networks.
What does cross-chain development offer?
Cross-chain development lets developers make apps that can run on multiple blockchain networks. This makes them more compatible with each other and lets them reach more users. This flexibility and ability to grow can be especially helpful for developers who want to try out different blockchains and make apps that need a lot of throughput or need to support a lot of users. To take advantage of the benefits of cross-chain development, developers can do research on the different blockchain networks and get to know them. They can also think about adding support for multiple networks as needed to their apps.
If you are a developer for a DeFi ecosystem, you can use cross-chain development to give your app access to a lot more liquidity. This means that if the user wants to trade their ETH on Solana, where transactions can happen faster and cheaper, they can. The project whose assets are being transferred to other networks gets the benefit of increased usage and utility, while the project incorporating these xAssets gets access to greater stores of liquidity and projects to interact with.
The community is a growing area for cross-chain development. Individual network projects naturally seek out other projects to form partnerships and launch joint ventures as they mature. By connecting with projects across the chains, they can build interconnected DAOs. And as discussed before, we can even enable cross-chain voting.
Finally, going cross-chain also allows developers to ask for pieces of information about their users from other networks. For example, an xDapp built over Solana can enable users to log in via ENS without needing to re-upload the information.
With that said, this brings us to the end of this post. A huge shout-out to Aditya Ashutosh, who is also the co-author of this piece.
