Terabethia’s Testnet Release 🌉 Start Building & Testing on the Bridge 🧰
We’ve deployed a stable version of Terabethia’s testnet for developers to start ideating, stress-testing, and sharing feedback as we prepare for a a mainnet release.
We’re wrapping the year with Terabethia’s first steps! A couple of weeks ago, we announced Terabethia to the world and gave early access to its repositories, and vision.
Today, we’re opening up Terabethia’s testnet! Developers can start testing and building on Terabethia’s testnet contracts deployed on the Internet Computer, and Goerli (Ethereum) 🧰 and experimenting with the communication protocol to connect contracts across the IC and Ethereum.
Terabethia’s Testnet Release! 🧰
Allowing contracts across to message each other, and mirroring assets over automatically are two key roles Terabethia will play as a protocol (starting with Ethereum, and the Internet Computer).
We want to ensure both challenges are met in the best way possible, as well as with the highest standards in terms of code, performance, security, and developer experience. After all, contract execution will be involved, as well as assets. That’s why we’re having a testnet stage, to stress test all of those aspects and allow developers to start creating and ideating in a cost-free testnet, and help toughen up Terabethia as a whole.
Terabethia’s Testnet — What is Available? 🚀
This testnet includes the communication-protocol core of Terabethia. It does not include the Magic Proxy or Token Factory yet (Our priority is to test Terabethia’s main use case, its cross-chain communication protocol for contracts. The Magic Proxy is a secondary use case built on that protocol itself and will follow soon after in priority).
At this stage, with the communication protocol you will be able to:
- Use the bridge to send messages across contracts on Ethereum Goerli, and the Internet Computer’s mainnet, and the other way around.
- Have contracts consume messages on either side of the bridge.
- Test our testnet implementation of ETH <> Wrapped ETH, built as an example of both how to use the bridge to have contracts communicate with each other, and leveraging that to create wrapped assets on the IC.
In this case, we chose Goerli as the playground network for the Ethereum side of the bridge; and we maintained the testnet IC contract on the IC’s mainnet because developer costs are minimal.
Getting Started — The Testnet Documentation 📓
Ready to start building on Terabethia? Visit our docs! You’ll have everything you need to start developing contracts on both chains that use Terabethia to communicate!
- Get started on our documentation page.
In terms of integrating and using Terabethia, the scope is simple. You have two main methods on each side of the bridge (Ethereum, and the Internet Computer) that contracts on each chain can call
On Ethereum đź’Ž
sendMessage(uint256 to_address, uint256[] calldata payload) {} consumeMessage(uint256 from_address, uint256[] calldata payload) {}On the Internet Computer ♾️
send_message(to: Principal, payload: Vec<Nat>)
consume_message(from: Principal, payload: Vec<Nat>)One method to send a message to a destination contract (or canister in the case of the IC), and another method that said contract can use to consume the message as a recipient.
For reference, view our implementations of the bridge’s contracts. The Ethereum side uses StarkNet’s contract, and the Internet Computer a mirrored equivalent (there are secondary contracts in the repository that supplement these).
ETH <> WETH Wrapped Asset Example👨‍🏫
Last but not least, to start testing the bridge ourselves, its asset mirroring capabilities, and to provide everyone with an example integration of two contracts (one of the IC, and one on Ethereum) that use Terabethia to communicate…
We created Wrapped Ethereum on the IC (using Goerli Ether, of course, so purely a test and no real monetary value).
It is a three-contract implementation. A proxy contract on Ethereum receives Goerli Ether deposits from a user, locks them, and sends a mint message to the Internet Computer by calling the Terabethia bridge contract.
That message is sent to a WETH proxy canister on the IC that consumes the message and tells the WETH token canister to mint an equivalent amount of Wrapped Ethereum on that network.
- Quick ETH<>WETH Guide
- Here’s the repository of both IC-side contracts (proxy, and token).
- As well as the Ethereum proxy contract.
This is an early showcase of Terabethia’s communication protocol itself, as well as the concept we will follow through with the Magic Proxy and token factory, that will automatically mirror assets (ERC20, ERC1150, ERC721) to the Internet Computer so users can leverage the IC’s perks (low fees, fast transactions, etc.). The WETH contract uses the DIP20 interface.
Start Building, and Share Your Feedback! đź‘‹
This marks the beginning of our road to Terabethia’s mainnet (Q1 2022)! Testing will give us all the valuable insight we’ll need to pave the way for a solid, and peer-reviewed mainnet release.
In the meantime, we encourage everyone to get building and join our Discord to share with the Terabethia team any improvements, proposals, or feedback that might come from this first iteration!
